‘I almost lost my life’: Anne Curtis recalls jellyfish encounter

Anne Curtis was filming scenes for the ABS-CBN fantaserye, “Mars Ravelo’s Dyesebel,” when she had an encounter at sea that nearly cost her her life in 2014.

The 33-year-old star recalled the headline-making incident in her Instagram stories Wednesday, saying, “About this time four years ago, I almost lost my life to a box jellyfish.”

The incident happened in Batangas, and Curtis, still in agonizing pain from the sting, was shuttled to different hospitals in San Juan and Lipa to get proper treatment, until she was finally confined at a private hospital in Taguig.

The box jellyfish, said to be among the world’s most poisonous creatures, kills 20 to 40 people in the Philippines every year, according to research from the United States National Science Foundation.

“The venom of the box jellyfish is so overpoweringly painful that victims often go in shock and drown or die of heart failure before reaching shore,” a 2010 report from The Telegraph, about a British victim, reads.

Captioning a photo of the rashes she she sustained from her own box jellyfish encounter, Curtis wrote: I am very thankful that I got stung by only half a tentacle. So, even if I experienced all the symptoms — vomiting in a span of one minute, extreme pain, and delirium — the venom was not enough to put me into cardiac arrest and turn into [a] fatal sting.”

‘I almost lost my life’: Anne Curtis recalls jellyfish encounter

She went on to urge those who plan to visit the beach, as summer rolls in, to be cautious when swimming.

Addressing her 10 million followers, Curtis said: “This summer, be careful in our waters. Because, yes, we do have one of the world’s deadliest jellyfish in Philippine seas — the box jellyfish.

“The ocean is their home. We are merely visitors. So it is our responsibility to be careful and ask locals if we should be on the lookout for jellyfish in their waters when going for a swim.”