Livneh Shalev, 42, a resident of the Golan Heights moshav Yonatan, died Friday afternoon after suffering a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting during a family hike on the Golan Trail near Moshav Natur.
Shalev, who had served hundreds of reserve days and was also in active service, was on short leave with his family when he was stung. Paramedics and medics from Magen David Adom found him in critical condition from the allergic reaction and evacuated him to Poriya Hospital near Tiberias while performing resuscitation. Medical staff pronounced him dead at the hospital.
“We are all shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Livneh Shalev, a dear friend and cherished member of our community, a son of the Golan and a devoted family man,” said Uri Kalner, head of the Golan Regional Council. “Livneh had only recently taken on his role as director of the Golan community center, but he had already left a mark and began building a promising future of service. Our hearts are with his wife, Hodayah, who heads the council’s youth unit, with his children, his family and the Yonatan community in this painful and incomprehensible moment. May his memory be a blessing.”
Shalev was evacuated from the site with the help of police volunteers from the Golan rescue unit, an Israeli Air Force helicopter and Unit 669 personnel. Due to his condition, rescuers dispatched a helicopter where advanced resuscitation efforts continued en route to the hospital.
“When we arrived, we found a man lying on the ground with no pulse and no breathing,” said MDA paramedic Yaniv Anzel. “We were told he had been stung by a wasp and his condition deteriorated quickly. We immediately began advanced life-saving measures, and he was taken to the hospital in critical condition.”
Wasp stings are generally not life-threatening, but for those who are allergic they can be fatal. “About two percent of the population develops an allergy to bee or wasp venom,” explained Dr. Idit Lachover-Rot, director of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Unit at Rambam Health Care Campus. “The reaction usually appears from the second sting onward, but no one can say why a particular person develops an allergy or why it happens after the second or even the tenth exposure to the allergen.”