2 days ago
On a trip to the beach, a sting from a KILLER SNAIL put me in a coma. A medicine cabinet staple saved me from death
Tina Petway was working on a remote island when one of the most toxic creatures on the planet stung her three times.
Alone with no way to call for help, she began to lose consciousness on the way back to her research hut where she wrote a dying letter to her husband and got into bed hoping to survive.
Then 24, Petway had been stung by a cone snail. It is among the world's deadliest snails and is armed with venom-tipped stingers capable of stopping a human's breathing within minutes.
Ranging from 0.5 to 8.5 inches long and shaped like an ice cream cone, the shells of cone snails often appear harmless, and their vibrant designs attract beachgoers.
But those who accidentally collect shells that are still occupied by the gastropod could suffer a nasty sting, which have been linked to 36 deaths in medical literature - and experts say the number is likely higher.
They are found in the Solomon Islands, where Petway was working, and along the coasts of Indonesia and Australia.
Petway was stung in August 1972 but is now revealing the encounter 53 years later to warn others of the seaside dangers, as experts suggest the snails are coming to the US and are present around San Diego, California and Mexico's Pacific coast.
'I could see the tiny barbs sticking out of my finger - they looked like fish bones, and I tried to pull them out but couldn't,' Petway, an associate curator of mollusks at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences in Texas, told the Daily Mail.
Tina Petway (pictured), from Houston, Texas, narrowly escaped death after being stung by a cone snail three times while on a trip to the Solomon Islands
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'I realized I was in danger, I already was having a hard time breathing, I was having difficulty seeing.'
Through her work, Petway was aware of the dangers of cone snails, which are predators and use their toxin to immobilize fish.
While they do not hunt humans, they may deliver a sting if someone picks up their shell or accidentally steps on them.
She recalled coming across the creature while in the water. It was in the sand, and she picked it up carefully, making sure to position the shell between her thumb and forefinger in a way that wouldn't allow the stinger to reach her hand.
However, she noticed another cone snail was making its way toward her foot. As she bent down to also pick up that shell, the one already in her hand twisted in her grip and stung her three times.
'I realized that my hand was burning. I looked over and realized my hand had actually turned and the shell had moved, and now I had three tiny barbs in this finger right here,' she said, pointing to her left forefinger.
Petway quickly pocketed the snail in her research bag and attempted to walk back to her beach hut, but quickly began feeling dizzy and developed blurred vision.
As she walked, she began to lose consciousness.
Once inside, she took antihistamines - typically used for allergic reactions - in a bid to stop her airway from closing.
She also put papaya on the wound, a supposed remedy for drawing out the cone snail's toxin.
Before falling unconscious from the venom, Petway wrote a note to her husband, who was elsewhere on the island, recounting exactly what had happened and how she had tried to treat herself.
Pictured above is the shell of the cone snail that stung Petway in 1972. She kept it after her ordeal and it is displayed in the museum where she works
She then crawled into bed to wait it out in hopes she would survive. It was three days before she woke up again.
Because of the limited documentation on cone snail bites, mortality rates from a sting widely vary, with research estimating a mortality rate of anywhere from 15 to 75 percent.
Eventually, Petway's husband returned to their hut where he sat by his wife's bedside, later admitting that he was terrified she was going to die.
The recently married couple were on an extremely remote four-mile island with no hospital or advanced medical facility anywhere nearby.
During the three days Petway was in bed, she would occasionally open her eyes and respond 'yes' or 'no' to questions, her husband later told her - though she has no recollection of it.
When she finally regained full consciousness, she suffered from crippling head pain.
After another few days in the hut recovering, she was able to get transportation by boat to an airstrip from where she caught a plane to a hospital.
Petway finally saw a doctor more than a week after her sting - and the physician could not believe she was still alive.
She credits her survival to her quick thinking: 'I think it was the antihistamines.'
'I took handfuls, I just swallowed handfuls of these drugs, along with some water. That was the only thing I could think of at that time, and it saved my life.'
Pictured above is a deadly cone snail extending its harpoon-like stinger from its shell
She suffered from severe headaches for months after the sting, and it took her two years to regain use of her left forefinger. The stiffness in her hand left her dropping items and struggling to hold onto things.
Petway survived, but the snail that stung her did not.
While the creature died in her bag due to a lack of water, its shell, is on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
While the experience may put many off cone snails for life, Petway said it just made her more fascinated with them - though she has learned not to pick up the toxic creatures with her bare hands.
'It just made me excited to learn more about the snail and the toxin itself,' she said.
