Father loses part of stomach after being stung by pet scorpio

Ollie McAteer

Dean underwent surgery to drain the poison form his blood (Picture: PA Real Life)

A father lost part of his stomach after being stung by his pet scorpion.
Dean Armstrong had been feeding Sue (yes, really) in August 2012, when it attacked, flooding his body with potentially fatal poison.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up in hospital.
The sting cost him part of his stomach and pancreas, which were removed in a life-saving operation.
Dean, 47, wears a colostomy bag following his surgery but says he is ‘trying to see the funny side of things’.
Mr Armstrong, from Cambridge, said: ‘When I was stung I felt fear for the first time. I thought I was going to die.

He got stung by his own pet – called Sue (Picture: SWNS)

‘I was stung on my thumb, the sting was a pin prick and it didn’t even draw blood but it left me with a 20inch scar.
‘Still I love scorpions, and don’t bear a grudge to them.’
He was found by his cleaner who rang for an ambulance before he was rushed to Whipps Cross Hospital.
There, doctors did a blood transfusion to get rid of the scorpion’s life-threatening poison that was taking over Mr Armstrong’s body.

He is now modelling with his colostomy bag (Picture: PA Real Life)

Following the procedure to drain his pancreas of poison, Mr Armstrong returned to hospital for monthly scans to monitor his progress, and two months later a cyst was discovered, which later burst.
At York University Hospital, Mr Armstrong was taken into theatre and when he woke up, he learned surgeons had removed his stomach, gall bladder, half his pancreas and some of his intestines.
It was only months after the procedure when Dean took part in a catwalk show and modelled his colostomy bag.