A 20-year-old Ohio man fighting for his life after being stung by bees more than 20,000 times and swallowing about 30 insects managed to come out of a coma days after the incident, the New York Post reports.

Last Friday, Austin Bellamy was cleaning a lemon tree and at one point unknowingly cut open a hive from which thousands of African bees came out and attacked him. He was covered in bees on his head, neck and shoulders.

“He looked like he was covered in a black blanket from head to toe,” said Shona Carter, the young man’s mother, who started a fundraiser to pay for her son’s hospitalization.

He started shouting for help, but the grandmother and uncle who were present could not help him because they were also attacked by bees. “I was trying to climb the ladder to get to Austin. I saw how tall she was… I couldn’t reach because I was surrounded by bees,” said the young man’s grandmother.

Firefighters intervened and were able to remove him from the tree, and he was airlifted to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was placed in an induced coma.

According to doctors, Austin Bellamy was stung more than 20 thousand times and swallowed about 30 bees. On Wednesday, he came out of a coma, but remains in the hospital, writes the New York Post.