Antoinette Webb was visiting Fort Knox State Park with her 9-year-old twins, Ella and Jonah, when she picked up a shiny green beetle and felt a fast-moving wave of burning through her body. Within moments last week, the 44-year-old was fighting a severe allergic reaction and running up a grassy hill toward the park’s gift shop.
“A berry green, [most] beautiful beetle I’ve ever seen. And I just picked him up and I said, ‘Whoa, you’re so pretty.’ And within seconds, I felt burning through my body,” Webb said. She later said, “It happened at the bottom of the hill. I made it to the top right here and that was it. That’s all I remember,” as the emergency unfolded around her children.
At the gift shop, Webb collapsed in front of Dean Martin, the executive director of Friends of Fort Knox. Martin said he was holding her hand, talking to 9-1-1 and trying to keep her alive as she passed out again and again. He said she had blue lips, a constricted airway, hives, wheezing and shaking, and that she went into respiratory distress before losing consciousness three separate times.
Martin and his wife, Sherry, comforted Ella and Jonah during the emergency. Martin said he and others gave Webb Benadryl before ambulance crews arrived. Webb was later taken to the hospital, where she received four epinephrine shots.
The beetle was identified as a six-spotted tiger beetle, which Martin described as iridescent green, non-venomous and equipped with pincher-like jaws. He said he has nearly two decades of experience as an Army medic, and the park staff’s response, along with Friends of Fort Knox, was credited with helping bridge the gap before medical crews reached the scene. The reaction was described as a one in a million severe allergic reaction.
Webb and her children returned to Fort Knox State Park 24 hours later, and the reunion turned the rescue into something more than a medical scare. Webb thanked Martin and told him, “Because of you, they have their mom today,” and later said, “When I saw him, I immediately — I knew I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for him.”
She told visitors, “They acted fast, they knew exactly what to do. I’m just so grateful, I’m just so grateful. If you guys come to Fort Knox, just know that you will be taken care of and your children will be taken care of.” Martin said Webb is a regular and added, “I’m sure she’s going to come back. I didn’t realize she’s a regular. I’m sure I won’t forget her after this, though,” before adding, “It’s going to be like that every time.”
