Paralyzed by a Scorpion

Out Alive from Backpacker

Louisa Albanese

Places & Travel, Sports, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When a rafter was stung by a scorpion, she assumed she’d be fine. Then she lost her ability to see or speak clearly. It was the beginning of a nightmare that nobody in her group of experienced adventurers saw coming. After all, there aren’t supposed to be deadly scorpions in the United States. But as her condition grew more frightening, they began to believe they had a serious emergency on their hands. In this episode, a collaboration with the Outside podcast, we investigate how a standard backcountry incident turned into a medical and scientific mystery.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm not bragging or stretching the truth when I say that my colleagues here at outside
0:13.8	get out a lot.
0:16.2	One of our gear editors trail ran the Grand Canyon from one rim to the other and back.
0:22.0	More than a few of our editors have completed the brutal 40 mile ski mountaineering race
0:27.0	in Colorado known as the Grand Traverse and our content meetings are filled with through
0:32.9	hikers, ultra marathoners, big wall climbers, and big wave surfers.
0:39.1	So it's no surprise that every so often we pursue stories about each other, which is how
0:45.0	we ended up with this episode.
0:48.1	Producer Marin Larson, who works on the outside podcast, reached out to me and told me about
0:53.2	the heroing experience involving senior editor Abigail Baroneon on a summer rafting trip.
0:59.7	We decided it would make for a great story for out alive, so Marin got to work.
1:06.1	If you enjoy this piece, you can listen to many others like it on the outside podcast,
1:11.0	so I encourage you to follow the show if you don't already.
1:14.8	So from out alive and the outside podcast, we bring you a story about one of our own editors,
1:21.0	a cautionary tale about how even for seasoned adventurers, the littlest things can be the
1:26.8	biggest threats.
1:30.6	I made a decision to survive in that survival mode, the idea of dying wasn't in my head.
1:38.3	I knew immediately it was the worst case scenario.
1:40.4	I was in a fight for my life situation.
1:42.3	Whenever you walk out on these trails, you're in their house.
1:47.0	I'm Louisa Almanes, and you're listening to Out Alive by Backpacker.
1:51.1	In each episode of this podcast, we'll bring you real stories of real people who survived
	...

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