Wear protection when fragging!

Chelsey

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Got word tonight that a 17 year old local reef club member is in the ICU tonight. His nickname is Trottman, here's the post about what happened:

The best recollection of what happened was last night while fragging he got some zoanthid juice in his eye. Today just before noon he came into the shop staggering and out of it like he was intoxicated.

He was filling RO containers then fainted.
Trottman regained consciousness and sat in a chair then started vomiting and fainting.
I called his Parents to come pick him up because I thought he might have downed a fifth of hard liquor or something, he was just getting it out of his system.

He dad is a trauma surgeon and said he was not drunk or had alcohol poisoning and something was wrong so I called and ambulance and he was taken to the hospital.

All toxicology reports for drugs and alcohol came back negative.
His symptoms matched what palytoxin does to you.
I told the Paramedic and his dad that it could have been palytoxin right before the pulled away after thinking about it.
They looked it up and said it was the probable cause.

He is in intensive care for the night on fluids and IV.
I just talked to his dad and he is hungry and is urinating(which is a good sign?)
So he is good for now.


PLEASE be careful when fragging...I know that I am guilty of not wearing gloves and eye protection sometimes, but it could only take one slip... :(
 
AS

ficklefins

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Chelsey,

I posted a thread last week about being plasted in the eye by a zoanthid. My symptoms weren't that bad, but it is a very good sign that those around you knew the toxin involved. I was talking to poison control and they had no idea what it could be. My doctor even asked me if it was a fish, after I explained to her it was a coral.

I think most of us overlook the palytoxin in zoanthids. While trying to explain to poison control what happened to me I came across this on wikipedia... very shocking!!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoanthids
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palytoxin

BTW, if you check out my avatar I have learned from my mistake and wear saftey goggles every time I frag or monve zoas. Not worth the risk in my opinion.


"Palytoxin is an incredibly complex marine natural product containing 71 stereochemical elements. Palytoxin, isolated from soft coral, is considered to be one of the most toxic non-peptide substances known, second only to Maitotoxin."
 
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3mm3

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yeah palytoxin is no joke-I have got it twice and thats enough-the last time it was so hard to even get a breathe for about an hour-bad news I always wears gloves now

WOW!!
I had the same thing happen. Woke up about 30 minutes after I went to bed and to my horror found that I was basically choking to death. (well thats at least what it felt like) I was messing with the zoas and palys just before bed.
Anyways,
I hope Trottman is doing better now.
 

MarvinsReef

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yeah, I hope he'll be okay....

I started wearing goggles couple of weeks ago.. and sometimes wear gloves, sometimes not.. I do have them so I will start using them all the time..
 

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