The Mountain Rescue service was called out to rescue a French woman in the Sierra Nevada area after she was stung by a wasp.

The 77-year-old woman, who is allergic to wasp stings, had gone into anaphylactic shock whilst out walking in the Alto del Chorrillo area within the municipality of Capileira.

When the rescuers, who had arrived in helicopter after picking up a doctor at the heliport in Pitres, found the victim, her tongue and lips had already swollen up and she was having breathing difficulties, making it impossible for her to continue under her own steam.

The doctor managed to stabilise her condition before they loaded her into the the helicopter for a return flight to the Pitres heliport, where an ambulance awaited to take her to the main hospital in Granada.

Editorial comment: it would take at least an hour by road from Pitres to the city of Granada and as the helicopter had to return to its base in Armilla, a minute or two flying time from the PTS hospital, which is also in Armilla, why didn’t they just fly her there?

(News: Sierra Nevada, Granada, Andalucia)