Anyone ever been to the ER for palytoxin poisoning?

[The Guy]

I was told to wear surgical type gloves, needless to say when your in the tank and you think oh ya I'll just move this zoe or paly from here to there, I end up with tingling fingers for several hours if I don't have the gloves on. safety glasses for sure if fragging is a must IMO. Living in BC is no advantage you still wait hours in the ER.
Hope your feeling better soon!

[Simmy]

This was very informative for me! Although I feel for your pain and suffering I'm glad you were able to post this as a warning to other reefers that haven't fragged before. Thank You!

[jason604]

I too have felt palytoxins wrath but its seem like u got it much worst. I actually got my very first zoas from Scott tang and when moving them into my tank I had gloves on but totally forgot n touched the side of my mouth. I immediately washed it but I guess it got in. Felt like total ****. Heart felt like I was gonna race out my Chest n felt some numbing throughout my body. Now I take extra precautions while dealing with any type of corals n mainly always only moving them with my tongs n I wear a doctors mask and goggles n glove while fragging zoas

[asylumdown]

you are all re-confirming for me why I don't spend much time or money investing in the zoanthid/palythoa clade of corals... The most poisonous thing in my tank is a scribbled rabbit fish, and I don't ever try to pick him up with my hand.

Palytoxin is one of the most poisonous substances on earth, so if you're still alive to type this 5 days later I suspect you will recover. However, if the symptoms are really that terrible a hospital might have better drugs for your symptoms, and I'd deal with -36 if it meant that I might be able to stop feeling like a building had fallen on me. Also, there is always the possibility that the symptoms you are experiencing are being caused by something else, so I'd say it's worth it to just get checked out in general. It would suck if you had an illness whose symptoms just happened to show up at the same time as the eye squirting event and not do anything about it because you thought it was something else.

[LoJack]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

Also, there is always the possibility that the symptoms you are experiencing are being caused by something else, so I'd say it's worth it to just get checked out in general. It would suck if you had an illness whose symptoms just happened to show up at the same time as the eye squirting event and not do anything about it because you thought it was something else.

In the back of my mind, I always think this is what happened with me.

I kept telling myself it wasn't the paly's because I didn't start showing symptons until about 6 hours after the squirt that got me beside the eye (not even in it).

I had also read stories of dogs dying from just drinking the water that zoos and palys had been fragged in. But when I did see a doctor, the symptoms didn't add up, most notably, the extremely acclerated heart rate.

Still ... I tell the wife that it was food poisoning, nothing more ... Can't risk that she'll take my tank away lol

[SanguinesDream]

I hope I live to day 5 because it feels like an elephant sat on my chest and it is only day 4. My chest isn't congested it just feels like my sternum is bruised.

Btw, BC poison control was useless as they has never heard of it.

[Magickiwi]

Can't be that bad if you aren't willing to call an ambulance or at least get a ride to the hospital to get checked out.