BROOKHAVEN, Ga. — A Brookhaven police officer is talking about a scary attack by yellow jackets.
His reaction from the attack was so severe he could not breathe.
It happened when he and other officers broke open a yellow jacket nest while they were tracking a suspect in a wooded area.
Brookhaven Officer John Ritch was stung at least 80 times, including 10 stings in his mouth.
The yellow jackets also swarmed around K-9 officer Grizz, who is a strong 95 pound active dog.
After the stings, Ritch said Grizz needed emergency treatment, too.
"I've been told they were wiping them by the hundreds off of me," Ritch told Channel 2's Linda Stouffer. "The biggest problem was I couldn't breathe. (It) felt like 500 pounds sitting on my chest. I couldn't expand my lungs."
Doctors said Ritch and Grizz were stung so many times, they both could have died.
"Grizz has got me through several difficult situations in the line of duty and the last thing I wanted to do was fail him by not being able to remove him from the woods and get him the treatment he needed," Ritch said.
Other officers rushed Grizz to get emergency vet care.
Tuesday, the nonprofit group We Ride to Provide donated a K-9 first aid kit to the Brookhaven Police Department to help the next time a K-9 is injured in the line of duty.
Grizz and Ritch are back to their full crime fighting duties, and they hope they never see another yellow jacket again.