Lucie Roussel, the mayor of a Canadian community in Quebec, died Sunday after being attacked by wasps. She was 51.
CBC said Roussel, the mayor of La Prairie, was attacked by about 15 wasps after stepping on a wasp nest while on vacation at her Straford home.
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Paramedics used an EpiPen, but Roussel died at a nearby hospital. She wasn't believed to be allergic to wasp stings, but the intensity of the attack may have played a part in her death.
Dr. Mitch Shulman, a Montreal emergency medicine specialist,
told The Huffington Post the large number of stings could have produced a “tremendous amount of venom” and caused her death.
"Depending on your underlying health situation and your underlying medical problems, it's easily understandable how that might overwhelm your body's ability to protect itself," he added.
La Prairie resident Sylvie Trepanier was saddened by the death. “She was respected a lot. She was a wonderful woman and a fair woman and a woman of heart and
she cared for us all those years,” she told CTV Montreal.
Roussel was elected mayor in 2005 after serving as interim mayor since 2003. She recently won election for a third term.
Roussel is survived by her two children, Constance, 18, and Antonin, 19. Her husband died from a heart attack several years ago.
"Losing someone in such a way is difficult," said Jean Bergeron, the town's director-general, according to the Huffington Post. "It's traumatic."
Twitter users expressed sympathy.
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