Child needs to remove his skin after touching a plant: “I will never forget my son’s screams” | Stay in

Touching an unfamiliar plant was enough to cause unthinkable suffering for Kayvon Wright, a little boy of just 2 years old. He was out for a walk with his mother, Samantha Morgan, 32, when he accidentally bumped into a poisonous plant, which is known as “the most dangerous in the UK”. The species is called giant “hogweed”, with no literal translation into Portuguese. The scientific name of the species is Heracleum mantegazzianum.

• Warning: child touches poisonous plant and gets second-degree burns on hands

The next day, the child experienced a nightmare, which began with red spots on his face and hands. Before long, these marks turned into painful blisters and Kayvon had to be rushed to an emergency room specializing in burns. Only two days later, doctors discovered that it had all been caused by contact with the plant.

“The blisters swelled and spread all over his mouth and face,” says his mother, Samtanha, to TheMirror. “He got a huge blister on his face, which burst on his cheek and started to run. When we went to the burns unit in Bristol he had to have a piece of skin removed. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever experienced. I will never forget my son’s screams as his skin was removed,” he recalls.

“It was horrible. It was absolutely horrible. He was so stressed. He was in so much pain, he was lethargic, he didn’t want to do anything, he was just lying in the hospital bed, bandaged up his hands and legs. Normally, he He’s very active and outgoing, but he was lying down doing nothing,” she says.

“Hogweed” has a sap that prevents the skin from protecting itself from the sun’s rays, causing horrible burns when exposed to natural light. Often the pain is not felt immediately. So, whoever touches the sap continues to get sunburn, without realizing there is a problem, until it is too late. Just touching the plant is enough for the sap to spread.

According to Samantha, Kayvon would probably only have briefly bumped into the leaves. “We were walking and he was touching everything he could, plants and flowers. So when he touched the plant, he must have touched his own face next, spreading the material, which didn’t activate until it was very sunny the next morning,” she says. “It started with just a few red spots on his hand and a few red spots on his skin. It was almost as if he had sunburn on his fingers. Then, small bubbles appeared. At first we thought it might be chickenpox; but the bubbles increased. He needed to take antibiotics and serum medications for pain relief. He was in the Bristol burns unit for six or seven days. It was mostly second-degree, almost third-degree burns,” she explains.

The mother has shared what happened to her son, as a warning for other parents to be careful with the plant, which usually blooms in June and July. Every year I put a post on Facebook about it and so do my friends because we want to raise awareness as much as we can. None of us knew it existed before my son got burned by it,” he explains.

Kayvon, who is now 6 years old, had large red patches on her skin for eight months after suffering the burns. The aftereffects of exposure to giant weeds would last much longer. “He now only has natural protection on the skin on his back,” said his mother. Samantha, who now lives in Somerset, England, urged her parents to be vigilant. “You don’t expect your child to get burned picking a flower while walking down the street. It’s very dangerous,” she warns. “Don’t let them touch everything,” she recommends.