A MOTHER has issued an urgent warning after her daughter had to be rushed to hospital after she was stung by a five-inch weever fish.

Lottie Dawson, 13, was enjoying a day out at Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire on Monday with her sister Nieve, brother Jude and mum Nikki when she felt a sharp shooting of pain in her foot.

She was left screaming in agony and when mum Nikki – who works as a
paediatric nurse for the NHS – took a closer look she became worried when Lottie's toe started to turn black.

Nikki told Lincolnshire Live: “It was our first little day trip out since all this happened.

“The kids were playing in the sand, building sandcastles. My daughter was just paddling, she wasn’t far in at all and then all of a sudden she screamed."

Nikki said she saw blood dripping from her daughter's foot and initially thought she had cut herself.

“I ran back to our little beach tent, grabbed a bottle of water and
put it over the side. Next to her little toe was something sticking
out of it," Nikki said.

“I just thought it was a piece of glass, so I squeezed with my fingers
to pull it out and all of a sudden what looked like a spike, just over
1cm long and a beige colour, popped out and then all this pus came
out.

“I got rid of it and washed her leg down then her toe started turning
black, which was very, very scary.”

What are weever fish and how can you avoid them?

THE fish are part of the Trachinida family and there are nine species of them.

However, only two are found in UK waters – the lesser and the greater weever.

The lesser weever is the type which Brits are most likely to come into contact with.

They are aggressive predators, feeding on immature fish, prawns and crustaceans. The creatures have spines containing strong venom on their dorsal fins and on their gill covers.

The species are mostly brown and around four to eight inches long. Stings from the creature were relatively rare, but a growing number have been reported in Plymouth, Cornwall and Kent.

People have been known to become unconscious due to the venom.

According to the NHS, if you are unlucky enough to get stung at the beach you should cover it with vinegar or close the wound.

It recommends soaking in hot water and removing the spines from the skin with tweezers or the edge of a bank card.

"HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS"

She added: “I am pediatric nurse so I have worked with lots of little
traumas – but I haven’t seen anything like this.”

With her daughter still in incredible pain, the worried mum managed to
get a bucket of water from an ice cream shop and put Lottie’s foot
into it.

Nikki was then told by a man working on a beach bar he believed her
daughter had stood on a venomous weever fish.

“He said there are jellyfish in there but there are also these
horrible, poisonous venomous fish so you need to ring 999. I was shocked,” Nikki said.

She called 999 and was told a warning had been issued about the
fish being on the beach in 2018 by the coastguard.

She was told to place the foot in water as hot as her daughter could
bear to try and bring the poison out.

The blackness was reducing, but Lottie's foot had now started to
balloon in size, so Nikki decided to take her to Boston Pilgrim
Hospital.

“[Doctors] were really worried about it because they this point her foot had tripled in size. There was a lot of fluid there. It was really big and swollen.

“The puncture side had then got an ulcer beneath like a blister.

“She was seen by nurse and doctors, but no seemed to know what was
wrong and what they needed to do.”

DAMAGE COULD LAST A YEAR

The medics gave the schoolgirl an anti-tetanus medication as well as antibiotics and antihistamines before allowing her to return home on the
instruction that she must return the next day for another check-up.

However, when the family got home, the foot had swollen up even more.

“By this time the inflammation and swelling had tracked up her leg so
her calf was really big. You couldn’t see her ankle,” Nikki said.

She called 101, who told her to take her daughter to hospital amid
concerns she could develop the potentially fatal deep vein thrombosis.

The girl and her dad went to hospital and again after treatment she
was allowed home.

Lottie has since been back to Boston and while the swelling has gone
down slightly the family have been told the damage could last for a
year.

“It is awful, it is really big and swollen and there is lots of fluid there," Nikki said.

“I thought this cannot happen to anyone else. We are a sensible
family, we don’t go to the beach loads. It’s one those things.

“She did have flip flops on for ages but took them off because the
sand had gone really nice and soft. She took them off and unfortunately I think it was hidden under the sand and she stood on it.”

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The mum now wants to warn other parents so the same thing doesn’t
happen to them.

“It was just to make others aware that all from stepping on
this horrible fish that is the most poisonous fish in the UK that they
need to be aware and wear beach shoes all the time," she said.

“As a nurse in the NHS you do see some really nasty traumas. Nobody I
have spoken to has seen this before. I think it is really scary."

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