How to Cure a Lionfish Sting!

- I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the spike zone with the

lionfish

. Three. Oh! Ah! Oh! - Are you OK? I catch you? - Oh yeah. Oh. Yuck. - Okay, we'll take you home. - Oh, man, friend. I'm dizzy, I'm dizzy. Okay, maybe it's a little worse than he thought. (dramatic music) - Let's go upstairs. - Oh. - Where are the keys? - It's actually pretty bad. Let's just open the door and not film it. Dude, my arm is like, fire. - Yes I know. What are you doing here? - Okay then (sighs). First, the most important thing.

Hot water, I have to have hot water in hand as soon as possible. You have to warm it up. I'll sit here. Oh. Wow. - Are you OK? - That is a pain that radiates. It is surely different from the tarantula hawk and the bullet ant. Well. Let me compose myself. - Yeah, so what's the game plan here? How do we deal with this? - Well, the most important thing for a poison like this... You can also do this with

sting

ray poison,

lionfish

poison, most sea creatures that can

sting

you and put poison into your body, is hot water.

As hot as you can stand. That heat breaks down the peptides and proteins in the venom. But the first thing I want to do is apply some hydrogen peroxide to the wound and clean it first. Ah, that feels really nice and cool in my hand. Do you see that bubbling? - Yes. - That's just soaking the wounds. - So, lionfish venom can be neutralized, right? - Yes. Sorry guys, I know when you see this you think: "He barely speaks." - Yes, look what's happening. - (laughs) Yes, my hand hurts a lot right now. Wow, I'm getting dizzy too.

Guys I'm sorry. This is probably the least elaborate... - Do we need to stop? Do we need to like it, to care? - No no no no no NO NO. I'll get through this. I'll get through this. As soon as... Oh, Mario, can you go check it out? It will take a while for the water to really heat up. Go see if the water starts to boil. So, the Epsom salt, I'm going to go ahead and throw that in now. - How much do you put in? - Oh, you don't need much. I'm going to put more than you probably need.

You probably only need a couple of teaspoons. I'm putting... - And now what does the salt do? - Smells good. Actually, that salt will also help break down the proteins in the venom. So, it also calms and also kills bacteria. It will kill and break down the poison. It's just good. They tell you to use Epsom salt if you can. If you don't have Epsom salt, just warm water will do a good job of breaking down... breaking down the poison. Oh! (laughs) Oh man. It's worse now than when I was bitten. It's worse than two minutes later.

I can feel it. It's just throbbing. - Here is the water, it is practically boiled now. - Okay, yeah, you have to get rid of that. Just throw out as much as you can, as much as fits here. - Ah, ah, ah, ah, hot, hot, hot! Oh. It's too hot to handle, but it's okay, I'll keep my hand there, that will definitely help break down the venom proteins. The most important thing that could happen now is that the poison breaks down. Let me try to apply a little of that to the wound. It's like massaging the wound a little.

Oh man. - Are you not getting the instant relief you thought you would? - It's not instant, it's not instant. We have to give it a few minutes. Okay, let's do this. Let's cut the camera... - Okay. - For a couple of minutes here. I'll let my hand soak for about 15 minutes. We'll come back and I'll show you here the last steps to take care of the wound. - Well. Coyote, it's been about ten minutes. How we feel? - Ten minutes. Feeling better! Believe it or not my hand... Ah. Getting a little passable. (laughs) It's okay though.

He's still sore. It definitely still hurts. I'm going to keep soaking it, but I think it's at least to the point where I can converse with you a little better. The warm water definitely helped. Not immediately, it certainly wasn't immediate. I would say within five to six minutes I noticed some relief. My hand still hurts, but it's better now. In fact, it's considerably better. Keep in mind that each person's body reacts differently to poison. That's the most important point I can make. A bee can sting you and go into anaphylactic shock. Now, there are very few reported cases of people having a truly negative reaction to a lionfish sting and the poison.

So if one of these fish gives you bones, spikes, or whatever you want to call it, definitely pay attention to what's happening to your body. Seek medical attention if you feel like you are going into anaphylactic shock or if you have any type of allergic reaction. Now, where the thorn marks still remain, I basically just want to apply my favorite, Neosporin. New bottle, I always carry a new one on every trip. But basically you just want to take Neosporin, smear it out, put it on the wounds, and pay attention to the wounds to make sure you don't have any secondary infections.

So I'll let Neosporin sit there. I'll keep it open to the air and let it absorb and do its job. Now this Neosporin is for pain and will also kill a lot of the bacteria that potentially got on my hand. Now, if you feel like you are starting to have an allergic reaction, you can certainly take Benadryl. I'll probably take one of these just as a safety precaution, and of course any basic ibuprofen will work to reduce pain and swelling. Wow. Well, I'm still dizzy and, believe it or not, the pain is actually starting to return to my hand now that it's cooling down.

I want to put him back in hot water, but... Oh, guys, that was um... - That was intense. - That was intense. - Yes. I'm glad you got over it well. We were getting a little nervous. Mario, that was... That was a little scary for a second. - Yes. - Well, I mean guys, keep in mind that this is the first time my body has been exposed to the venom of a sea creature. And I was nervous about this, I won't lie to you, and as I told you guys on the boat this morning, that was the first time, other than the manatee episode, that I had snorkeled before, so I was excited to be able to capture one of these fish, get close for the cameras.

Hopefully we have learned a lot about these animals, and as I always say, whatever you do, don't repeat what you saw me do at home, or just admire these animals from a safe distance, and everyone will be safe and sound. . Oh! I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave, stay wild. See you on the next adventure. Come here, warm water. Oh. If you missed the main episode, be sure to come back and watch me enter the spike zone with the lionfish. Oh! And don't forget, subscribe so you can join me and the crew on our next water adventure.