Surviving the Sting: My Unexpected Encounter with a Lionfish

While diving with Dive Dominica and spearing 116 Venomous Invasive Lionfish, I got stung on my third dive of the day. There were six Lionfish together about 50 feet down, and I shot the big one. The spear tip was moving around a lot. I took my left hand and decided to tighten the spear so that I could put it into my Zookeeper. Unfortunately, when I put my hand on the tip connection to the spear area, the large Lionfish tilted its spines into my left hand. I got stung on the top of my left hand above the knuckle and on the top of the second finger.

I jammed the Lionfish into my Zookeeper and decided to finish off the other five Lionfish that were still hanging out on the structure that was 50 feet down. I called over my buddy since I needed his Zookeeper and went on to spear the other five Lionfish. I ended up with 41 Lionfish killed on the last dive. The next issue for me was that I had two stings and was low on air, with 300 psi left in my tank. I signaled to my buddy Divemaster, Kevin Joseph, that I needed to share air with him to do my 2-minute decompression stop at 40 feet and then my 3-minute safety stop at 15 feet. Fortunately, everything worked out well because I stayed calm.

My hand started to swell, and the pain was unbearable while I was making my three-minute safety stop at 15 feet.I gave my Zookeeper to my buddy and tried to squeeze the venom out of the two stung spots. I did get out a little blood, and my hand started to bruise, so I stopped squeezing. Having 300 psi left in my tank, I could use my air to make the safety stop, and all was good.

Next, I got on the Dive Dominica boat and asked for hot water, which they did not have. I asked for ice, and they had plenty of it. Captain Bill put some in a plastic bag for me, and I applied it to my finger and the top of my left hand. The ice relieved the pain, and I was happy to have it.

After icing my hand while we were driving back to the shop, I remembered I had StingMaster and applied it to my two stings. Once we got back to the dock, after about 10 minutes, Dilma Bastian, the reservation manager, brought me coffee and water. Marcus, the assistant on the boat, cut open a large plastic water bottle since I could only get my finger into the cup Dilma had brought me. The large water bottle cut in half was great, and I could put my whole hand in the bottle. After putting my hand in the hot water, the pain got much worse, but I knew it was the only way to neutralize the venom from my Lionfish stings. I kept adding hot water to a water bottle. Every time the water became cool, my hand throbbed and hurt like you could not believe.

My hand was still swelling, and you could not see my knuckles or the veins on the top of my hand. The swelling was in from my second finger knuckle to my wrist, and half of my thumb swelled up, as did the area between my thumb and first finger. Fortunately, I had been stung other times and stayed calm. We took some videos of the 116 Lionfish we killed, explained about the two stings in another video, and then my wife Andrea and myself were on our way to Screw’s Sulfur Hot Springs, which was our next destination.

After a thirty-minute ride into the jungle mountains, we got to Screw’s Hot Springs around 5:00 pm. After walking with my water bottle to the nature hot tub, I was greeted by the owner, Screw. He told me that the water would help the swelling and pain in my hand that got even worse! I paid my entrance fee and was off to the hottest natural pool. Immediately, I felt relief in my hand and finger when I was submerged in the hot, hot water. I felt confident that the hot water would denature the venom, and it was much easier swimming in the natural spring than pouring hot, boiling coffee water into a water bottle.

Around 6:30 pm, after spending time in the hottest natural spring and the second hottest sulfur spring, we left with our driver, Alick, to get dinner at the Riverside Chinese Restaurant. I soaked my hand in the water container that I replaced with hot sulfur water for the hour-long ride to the restaurant. The pain was coming back in my hand, and when we got to the restaurant, the staff was nice enough to get me some more boiling water, which I used to soak my hand during dinner.

When we finished dinner at 7:30 pm, my hand felt much better. Four and a half hours had passed, and the pain was gone. My hand was still swollen, and it was super painful to the touch, but I was doing great, considering how much pain I was in initially! Next, we were dropped off at the hotel and went to bed around 10 pm.

After having a decent night’s sleep at 4:30 am, the whole room was shaking, including the wooden closets rattling and the glass wall of the bathroom moving. Was my mind affected by the Lionfish sting, and I was confused when I woke up? No, it was an earthquake that originated in Puerto Rico!!!

I did not find that out until I google if there were any earthquakes in Dominica at 8 am…

Saturday, we just hung out around the hotel grounds and took it easy. My hand was still pretty swollen, and I decided to leave it alone so I did not soak or play around with it. It only hurt if I bumped into something or pushed on the skin in the areas where I was stung…

I decided to get back on the horse and go Lionfish hunting again! Most people would have retired the rest of their vacation, but not me. I had booked three dives with Vergenie and Remi from Cabrits Dive Center. They picked me up at 8:30 am, and we were on our way to a three-dive 111 Lionfish speared day. My hand was super sore, but as everyone knows, I love to hunt invasive Lionfish and help keep the underwater environment under a little more control. Each fish I remove from the water saves tons of tropical fish from being eaten! The only issue I had diving on Sunday was some pain in my hand when I was holding my Zookeeper.

At 6 am, I jumped on a small Dominica Tours fishing boat, and we were trying to catch some bait to catch Mahi Mahi and Yellowfin Tuna with hand lines and floats. I had a few bites, but we could not catch any bait for the Yellowfin Tuna… We did see a local fisherman pull in by hand, without a rod, a 65-pound Yellowfin Tuna! It was so cool to learn how the locals in Dominica fish. My hand was swollen, but I felt lucky I could participate in other activities. The first time I got stung in Colon, Panama, in May 2014, I had issues with my thumb sting for a month. I did not get necrosis, but I had a giant blister from burning my finger in boiling coffee water. The pain was so bad on my first sting ever that it felt better burning my finger than dealing with the pain.

The reason my finger was so swollen in Panama was because I was three hours away from our hotel in Panama City. The shop I was diving in did not have boiling water, and I had to wait about an hour and a half before I got hot water. I tried leaning my thumb on the motor, which was pretty hot on the way back from the dive, but that did not help. If I had a knife, I would have tried to cut off my thumb since it hurt so much, and the pressure was building up. I recommend that new Lionfish hunters bring a hot water thermos with them in case they get stung while hunting Lionfish.

We had two flights to get home from Dominica to Newark, New Jersey. The swelling was going down in my hand, but the altitude made my hand swell up a bit. Pushing the suitcases around was not fun, but Andrea helped me, and we made it home by 6 pm.

The swelling of my hand was much better after a good night’s sleep. I worked a typical day and was safe at my desk in my insurance office in Hoboken, NJ.

My hand was getting back to normal, but it was still sore to the touch, and three joints started to hurt more than before. I left my hand alone and took no medicine the whole time!

The swelling was less again. The soreness was still there if I bumped my finger, thumb, or hand. It was a week after I got the double sting, and again, I felt lucky after being stung three other times. When people asked me about the first sting, I told them it was more painful than getting my appendix out after suffering for a day with that!

I could see the veins on the top of my hand today and was excited that my hand was doing much better. It was still sore to the touch.

Today, my hand from the first finger to the thumb was swollen again, and my two finger joints and the knuckle joint on top were killing me. I have no idea why, but if it does not go away, I plan to call DAN, Divers Alert Network, to see what they think. I recommend having dive insurance through them. They also have some great courses to take. In 2010, I took a DAN course on Lionfish stings.

All day Monday, from my first finger to my thumb, was sore. I noticed the knuckles around the areas I got stung to be hurting pretty badly if I touched them or the skin around them. Is my hand healing, and that is why it is hurting? I’m thinking about calling DAN and asking if they know.

After playing ice hockey last night, my left hand knuckles feel much better. My thumb knuckle hurts the most, but I only put pressure on it, as well as the side of my first finger knuckle near the top of the hand also. There is a significant improvement in the amount of pain, though.

My hand swelling is going down. It is sore, but only to the touch. The joints on my middle finger and middle finger knuckle are hurting, as are the two thumb joints.

I played ice hockey again last night, and the hand is feeling better. There is less swelling and less pain in the top of the hand.

My hand is about the same today. It is two weeks later, and it hurts more now than it did a few days after I was stung.

Today my fingers are feeling a bit better, but the joints are still hurting.

My hand on the side under the thumb and first finger is stiff and has swelled up again. It feels uncomfortable to the touch!

Today, I woke up, and the right side of my left hand is swollen. It is about half as bad as the day I got stung. From the bottom of my thumb near my wrist to the first finger, the knuckle is killing me if I press on the skin. It feels like a bad bruise. I think the one area on top of my hand hurts since I was squeezing it, trying to get the venom out after I was stung. My knuckle and the side of my hand is uncomfortable again.

I think it’s time to call DAN, Divers Alert Network, and see what they think. 

I need to ask them about a puncture I had in my foot from a frozen Lionfish two years ago. I had issues with my foot for a month and a half after I dropped the Lionfish on the top of my foot.

It’s the same as Monday. My joints are still sore.

It’s the same as Monday. My joints are still sore.

My joints in the thumb in two places and in my first finger towards the top of the hand are feeling a bit better. The venom is attacking the joints, and the muscles feel better now.

My joints are better on the thumb and first finger. I soaked my hand in the hot tub.

Today the joints are not hurting. If I press with my finger on the joints that were nothing me then then hurt.