Victim in Bee Attack a Longtime Arizona Resident
Only about forty people die each year in the U.S. from bee attacks. Often, an allergic reaction proves fatal. But when Africanized bees are involved, the level of aggression and the size of the swarm can produce enough stings to kill.
Sadly, for one Arizona man, the bees who stung him last week were Africanized. John Wade died from a heart attack last week following between 500 and 1,000 bee stings. Mr. Wade was staying on a property in Kingman, AZ, when he went into the back yard shed and encountered a large bee colony.
Mr. Wade spent much of his life in Lake Havasu, just sixty miles south of Kingman. He raised five children there but lost two sons along the way. At the time of his death, he had three adult daughters still in living in Tucson and Kingman.
Mr. Wade was community minded, a lifetime member of the Elks Lodge in Lake Havasu, the Masonic Lodge, and the American Legion.
“He was a great guy,” said Gene Flatt, one of Wade’s several long time friends. “A lot of things happened in his life. (His death) was a shock to me. He used to come to Havasu quite often, but he hadn’t been back for a few years.”
