An evening walk outside of the Foothills Medical Centre left one man suffering from numerous wasp stings.

Patient Randy Purdy was enjoying the summer conditions with a visiting friend on Tuesday night in the hospital’s courtyard. At around 9:30 p.m., while pushing his intravenous bag holder along the sidewalk near the taxi line and back towards the building, Purdy says he felt a sensation similar to the burn from a flicked cigarette.

The initial sting was followed by several more and Purdy soon realized he was standing next to a wasp nest.

“It was a swarm of yellow jackets,” said Purdy. “I just started running, they were all over me. They chased me from the emergency door ward down to the main lobby. Then they chased me in the lobby!”

While inside, Purdy discovered unwanted guests had attached themselves to him.

“When I took my shirt off, they were stuck to my skin. I was flashing them off.”

Purdy says he received strange looks as he danced and flailed through the lobby. CTV Calgary requested a copy of the hospital surveillance video but the request was denied.

By the time the patient made his way from the swarm and to the safety of the hospital, he had been stung at least 25 times. Purdy’s head was swollen and he was suffering from stings to his neck, groin and feet.

Purdy informed hospital staff of the location of the nest, but, as of Friday afternoon, the wasp nest has not been removed.

Rob Longair, an entomologist with the University of Calgary, says wasp activity increases in late summer.

"The colonies are bigger, and the queen has a little less control over all the workers in the colonies,” explains Longair. “They’re out more looking for more food and they don’t seem to be as well behaved.”

Longair says there is a chance the I.V. bag Purdy was lugging attracted the wasps.

“Especially after such a long, hot, dry spell, they’re looking for water because they use water to cool their nest. It may have been that they thought it was a pool of water.”

That being said, the entomologist suspects Purdy's presence was viewed as a threat prompting wasp agression.

“It’s much more likely that he just couldn’t move fast enough to get away from them and they’re trying to defend the nest.”

According to Alberta Health Services, there have been no complaints about wasps at the Foothills Hospital. AHS officials say a report of a wasp nest would result in the immediate removal of the offending nest from hospital grounds.