Snail vs French, garlic not included
by Florence
Following last Saturday's (Nov 15) events on the Power Station Beach as some of you may already be aware, I was bitten on the foot after my swim while walking in the sea in shallow water close to the rocks on the side of the power station. What I thought was two small holes turned out to be just one tiny little bloody one. I did not think much of it at first but within a minute or so, a strong pain started on my left foot. So I left the water, my foot was very painful and swollen and I could hardly walk. I decided to sit, stay calm and observe. I told a friend, Gill who was playing with her dog Sam, that something bit me when coming out of the water and that it was rather painful. No watch or phone!
After 10 minutes, the pain disappeared, replaced by a total loss of sensation in my left foot. I started to head home when I suddenly felt very dizzy and weak with the feeling that some toxic substance was spreading in my system. I sat down on the floor and called Gill for help, informing her that I was not feeling well.
Gill thought help from anyone around with a phone but no one had one until another friend, Sandrine, arrived with her dogs, Belle and Max. Within a couple of minutes, feeling of numbness and tingling occurred on both sides of my upper body on a symmetrical pattern, hands, arms, chest and legs and I felt totally paralysed and unable to walk or move. I started to be "scared to death" as I was thinking of a sea snake bite at first.
Gill and Sandrine called the Lamma Clinic straight away who arrived within 12-15 minutes, they gave me first aid and took me to the Clinic to call a hospital on Hong Kong side who quickly sent a helicopter to pick me up. Once at the hospital (Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital), they scanned/x-rayed me first to check my internal organs, took blood for investigation, gave an anti-tetanus injection and proceeded to another floor for examinations. Three or four times from the beginning of the incident I was totally paralysed with hard breathing. The doctors could not find any "snake" bite markings but only a tiny small red dot on my foot. A small swelling was found around that red dot but nothing else. I was kept under observation, my limbs were "paralysed" during 5 hours . After 5-6 hours, the sensation came back in my limbs quite rapidly and I felt good enough to go home. My feeling was that I had a "massive anaesthetic", no pain at all, just very tired on the next day.
At first, they thought it could be a stone fish or something similar. But the reactions I had did not match the expected side effects. When my boyfriend arrived and saw the red dot and my conditions, he mentioned to them that it could be a "cone snail" but they did not really think a "snail" could be that vicious and inflict such reactions in a person. It turned out to be one of the more than 500 types of cone snails found around the world who are extremely dangerous, even killers, and that most of us, especially kids, would pick up at the beach on holiday for "souvenirs".
Here are a couple of videos found on YouTube and an article which might give you a better insight of what I am talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfMY0fW8UwE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcBmMPJrrKk
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v429/n6994/full/429798a.html
So for a nation who regales on eating snails (I don't like them myself) this one almost got his revenge
The Book "Hong Kong Animals" from Dennis S.Hill (pages 110-112) will give you an insight into what we have in Hong Kong and we have wonderful species!