Pregnant Mom of 4 Gets Stung, Dies

Sarah Harkins of Virginia was in her backyard when wasps were disturbed
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2014 10:21 AM CDT
Pregnant Mom of 4 Gets Stung, Dies
Wasps can pose serious health risks to people who are allergic to their stings.   (PRNewsFoto/Orkin, LLC)

A mother of four with a baby on the way has died after a freak event in Virginia. Sarah Harkins, 32, was in her backyard in Spotsylvania County earlier this week when she got stung multiple times by wasps after a nest got disturbed. Harkins—who was 21 weeks' pregnant with a girl she planned on naming Cecilia Rachel—suffered a severe allergic reaction but made it inside the house before collapsing as husband Eric called 911, the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star reports. Paramedics revived her and got her to the hospital, but her brother tells NBC Washington that she then suffered a fatal brain aneurysm "during the trauma of it all." Her unborn child died, too.

Harkins' obituary describes her as "a dedicated wife and mother" who home-schooled her kids and made "handcrafted clay rosaries and jewelry," which she promoted on her blog, the New York Daily News adds. "I'm thankful to the medic for ... bringing her back enough so we could say goodbye to her," says her husband of nine years. Two funds have been set up to help the family, and they've raised $160,000 as of this writing. (Meanwhile, a man suffered 1,000 bee stings and lived.)

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