Ohio man who suffered 20,000 bee-stings expected to recover, family says

Austin Bellamy’s mother said the fire department told her the insects were a hybrid of western honeybees, above and east African lowland honeybees. Photograph: Planetpix/Alamy

An Ohio man who was stung at least 20,000 times by bees – and even ingested some of the insects – during a mishap while he was cutting tree branches is expected to recover, according to his family.

Austin Bellamy, 20, climbed high into a lemon tree in Ripley, Ohio, last Friday to help trim it when he mistakenly cut into a bees’ nest, his mother, Shawna Carter, has recounted, in addition to authorities’ accounts of his injuries.