Australian survives agonising stonefish sting in Fiji

FIJI – An Australian man says he was determined not to succumb to the poison of a potentially deadly stonefish.

Craig Saxby was holidaying with his family on Fiji’s Plantation Island when he trod on the camouflaged creature in shallow water.

The 51-year-old needed a week of intensive treatment and recovery before he could fly back to Sydney earlier this month.

He said it was an excruciating ordeal.

“I guess I could best describe the pain as holding an oxy-acetylene torch on your foot, and then working its way up your whole leg over an hour or so, then smashing your leg with a sledgehammer every 10 seconds,” Saxby said.

“Not to mention too, the associated nausea, the fever, the hyperventilation, you know trying to breathe.

“My eyes were rolling in the back of my head, I was clenching a towel with my teeth, just going blue on the face. I really was in a bad way.

“I guess when you’re at that stage you’ve just really got to go into a totally positive mindset and say to yourself ‘be strong, you’ll get through this, it’ll be all over soon, hang in there’.

“You never think that the end is near at all, you’ve just got to be positive.”

There was no anti-venom available on the island or at the medical facility in Nadi where Saxby was treated, but he was keen to praise the efforts of all those who helped him survive.

“They saw the state I was in and immediately arranged for an emergency plane to come to the island, where fortunately there is a runway,” he said.

“It probably took two hours all up until I got medical treatment of any real significance.

“They got me on a drip and injected me with morphine – all up five shots of morphine over about an hour until the breathing came under control – and then they administered antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, tetanus shots and the rest.

“It took about two hours for the pain to come down below 10 out of 10.”

Saxby is confident of making a full, if slow recovery.

“Fortunately there’s no spine in the foot or any residue of the stonefish or infection, which is good, but I’ve still got a bit of swelling and a bit of pain as if I’m getting speared there,” he said. “I can’t walk yet, I’m on crutches.

“I’ve spoken to other people and they say it could be six months until you’re back to normal.”

The stonefish is a genus of fish of the family Synanceiidae whose members are venomous, dangerous, and even fatal to humans. It is one of the most venomous fish known.

Stonefish stings are both potentially lethal and extremely painful as testified to by Saxby’s experience.

- ABC/PNC