A MUM’S summer holiday was ruined after she touched a plant worse than Japanese knotweed.
Lucy Jones was in Cadiz, Spain, with husband Max, 31, and daughter Lily, three, when she noticed a burning sensation on her right hand last month.
Kennedy NewsLucy Jones was in Cadiz, Spain, with husband Max and daughter Lily[/caption]
Kennedy NewsShe noticed a burning sensation on her right hand on May 23[/caption]
Lucy had to cut her holiday short due to the extreme painKennedy News
The stay-at-home mum says her skin erupted in agonising blisters and it looked as though her hand ‘had been dipped in boiling water’ after coming into contact with giant hogweed.
She rushed to a pharmacy where staff dressed it and gave her steroids for contact dermatitis.
But the pain became so severe the family were forced to cut their holiday short by three days and fork out £300 for an earlier flight back to the UK.
The 29-year-old went to Maidstone A&E where medics were initially left stumped as to what had caused the blistering burns.
After being transferred to the burns unit a doctor, who had seen the symptoms before, said she must have come into contact with the toxic plant.
Lucy had the tops of her blisters scraped off and her hand dressed – a procedure she described as ‘painful and traumatising’.
Once her hands have fully healed, Lucy will have to use sunscreen three times a day and wear SPF gloves to protect her scorched skin from the sun.
Lucy, from Maidstone, Kent, said: “I woke up and my hand was red and sore and it looked like a sunburn.
“I went to a pharmacy because it was getting worse, it was a really horrible burning feeling.
“Over the next 24 hours it got worse. It was blistering, really swollen and I could barely move my fingers.
What is giant hogweed and what does it look like?
Giant hogweed – Heracleum mantegazzianum – is an infamously dangerous plant which you will probably come across if you walk besides rivers and streams or near a fresh water source.
The plant is particularly worrisome as you don’t have to break it or rub the sap into your skin for its painful effects to take hold – just an unlucky brush with its leaves or stem is all it takes.
Giant hogweed stems have fine needle like hairs that will cause extreme irritation.
Toxins in the sap bind with DNA in skin cells, causing them to die and form huge burns and blisters.
Hogweed can tower up to 25ft tall, with long green stems with purple blotches, huge branches of small white flowers and green leaves.
It is a close relative of cow parsley and the plant’s flower heads can reach 2ft across.
Dozens of sightings of the poisonous plant have been recorded across the UK, according to PlantTracker.
It has been spotted in both the countryside and in cities such as London and Manchester.
“It was so painful. We decided to catch a last-minute flight home and went straight to the hospital from the airport.
“They had no clue what it was, no one in A&E had seen it before. They treated it as a burn, they took all the blisters off and removed a lot of skin.
“It was painful and traumatising. It was as if my hand had been put in boiling hot water and there were blisters everywhere and some red patches started appearing on my left hand.
“I went back to A&E for a couple of days to get it dressed. I went to the burns unit and the consultant said he knew what it was because he’d seen it before.
“It completely ruined the holiday. We’d been looking forward to it for ages. My daughter was loving being out there and going in the pool.”
Lucy doesn’t know if she brushed against the plant in the UK or in Spain but says she suspects she may have inadvertently touched it near her home as her area is known for having a ‘hogweed problem’.
Touching hogweed causes severe burns and blistering on the skin that lasts for several months.
The plant can grow to 10 feet in height and chemicals in its sap can cause photosensitivity.
Japanese knotweed is one of Britain’s most invasive plants.
The plant grows and spreads rapidly and can cause significant damage to property and infrastructure.
She rushed to a pharmacy where staff dressed itKennedy News
Kennedy NewsLucy will have to use sunscreen three times a day and wear SPF gloves[/caption] Read More