During a fun day at the shooting range on Italian Bar Mountain with two of my friends, one of my friends a TIM CATRELL decides to borrow my .22 rifle to do some squirrel hunting. He is horribly allergic to mosquito bites, and while he is out by himself close to sundown, myself and our other friend staying at the shooting range, he decides he would try an old Indian remedy for alleviating mosquito bites. He heard that if you rub Oak Tree leaves all over yourself, and then eat one leaf, it will alleviate the mosquito bites. Although this may be true, it helps to know what poison oak looks like... So he doesn't mention a thing about this, and when he gets back the three of us pack up and leave. The next day, he is fine (poison oak takes 24-48 hours to show its full effects apparantly). It isn't until I come back to work a few days later on monday the 4th that I notice that Tim isn't at work, and everyone at work is wondering how I let Tim almost die. On Friday afternoon/evening Tim went to the emergency room at the new Sonora Regional Medical Center for breathing problems, and was administered the proper emergency treatment. The reason why I wish to submit this as an honorable mention is because the doctors said that if Tim had waited another 1-2 hours before showing up at the emergency room, he would have been untreatable and dead from severe poison oak poisoning.

The morale of this story is Leaves of Three, Let It Be. For any required information needed for having this honorable mention posted, please contact me. I hope it makes it in, because this old Indian remedy gone wrong is a worthy story in the opinion of many I know locally for your esteemed website.

Submitted on 06/09/2007

Submitted by: Maurice Eddy Allen Toich
Reference: May 30th, Wednesday, Sonora CA

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Graham said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Golden Rule: Just because it's "herbal", doesn't make it safe! Many herbal remedies can be deadly in inexperienced hands.

James said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
VERY well told, Maurice! A tale of a bloke who only had (and knew) half the facts! He sure lucked out this time, and hopefully there won't be a next time!

Chip said:
Neutral: Personal Account
Am I suffering from Deja vu? I would swear that received this same story some time ago. Well, in case my brain is playing tricks, I'll be neutral on this one. Thanks for sending it, Maurice

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