GOUGH: MY KILLER SCORPION TERROR
ACE 40 MINS FROM DEATH
STRICTLY champ Darren Gough feared he had 40 minutes to live after being stung by a scorpion. The cricket legend was nipped on a safari in Africa, where some venoms can kill if not treated immediately.
TERRIFIED Strictly star Darren Gough feared he would not make it to hospital in time for a life-saving antidote after being stung by a venomous scorpion during a luxury holiday.
The ex-England cricketer thought he had less than 40 minutes to live when he was nipped while on safari in South Africa.
The venom from certain types of scorpion there can kill within half an hour if not treated immediately.
But Gough was in a remote area with his wife and was warned that even a helicopter would not be able to get him to hospital for treatment in time.
The Dazzler, 48, said: “As we didn’t know which type of scorpion it was, you couldn’t tell if it was the fatal sort.
“We were too far from a hospital – even if they scrambled a helicopter it would take 40 minutes to reach us. I would be dead on arrival.”
So he faced a horrific wait to see if he would live or die.
His ordeal began when he was in bed with his wife Anna in South Africa last week and he felt something sting him.
Gough, who won Strictly in 2005 with dance partner Lilia Kopylova, thought if he could kill the beast and photograph it, an expert could identify how much danger he was in.
So he hit the creepy-crawly with his phone but it scuttled away still alive, prompting the former fast bowler to spend the next half-hour frantically searching for it.
Gough said: “I had hit the scorpion with my phone, but it was on the bed so it did it no harm – it must have just been like a giant trampoline for the bug. I spent 30 minutes looking for it, but didn’t see it. So I sat there and waited.”
Yet while Gough worried he would die, he said Anna was so tired she “just turned over and went back to sleep”.
Luckily, the bite turned out to be non-fatal.
Speaking on his Talksport radio show, Darren added: “I can still feel the lump where it got me more than a week later.”
Darren and Anna wed in 1993 and had two sons, but split nine years later.
The couple reconciled and remarried last year.