A bather was pricked in the neck by this cone when he found it on the beach and held it to his ear to listen to the noise of the sea. He died in seconds.´
etc. there you’ll finde some more of this cute little animals. For more, you probably have one or more search engines in your browser (see instructions)
Wild how confidently incorrect you are. I’ve known of all these creatures most of my life and kind of thought the above comment was unnecessary because I figured everyone knew about them already. Then I read your brilliant take.
That tiny octopus is one of the deadliest animals on the planet. It has an extremely potent neurotoxin that has no cure/anti-toxin. You often don’t even know you’ve been bitten by one until you can’t breathe. By then it’s almost guaranteed to be too late. The only way to survive is to be put on a ventilator until the toxin wears off but the chances of getting to one in time is extremely minor.
I read in another thread on a other website that the original poster of this picture had some sort of liver disease and was dying from it, and sorta went YOLO at the chance to pick up a blue ringed octopus. They knew how dangerous it was, but for once the phrase “it will hurt the whole time you’re dying” was met with “it already is”
the go blue like that when they’re planning on biting you. when they are chill they just look rock colours.
It’s nice they let you know your death is near though. I imagine it’s takes lots of resources to make such toxic venom. so they probs don’t want to waste it.
I know someone who gave CPR on someone bitten by one of these.
They lived because of the CPR. They came out of hospital fine, except they were now blind because their eyes were open staring up at the hot summer Aussie sun for the entire time they were getting CPR etc.
Wow. This is like a commandment for aussie kids. Do not. Ever. Fuck around with things you don’t recognise at the beach. I didn’t pay much heed to many rules but this one seemed like a good idea - even to dipshit child me.
“The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis begins.[11] No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available.[12]”
This is why you start with small bites and build up an immunity. Then work your way up to larger breeds. You think people have chihuahuas because they actually want one?
This is correct. Tetrodotoxin. Like in pufferfish. It blocks nerve signals to muscles causing paralysis. There is no antivenom.
If you got it from eating pufferfish, best you can do is administer activated charcoal to absorb as much as possible that hasn’t already made it into the bloodstream. After that, all you can do is manually run the heart and lungs until it wears off.
So you basically need to be really close to a hospital or clinic, somehow convey what’s happened (while possibly unable to talk or move) and be lucky enough that said hospital has the resources to maybe keep you alive until it is out of your system.
Some more hopeful information about this little bugger:
It’s not ACTUALLY venomous. As in it doesn’t inject you with a lethal substance, rather, it injects you with a nerve-toxin which disables your ability to open/close your lungs, which kills you. This sounds just as bad, but it means if you can get to a hospital, and make it to a ventilator, you’ll be back to normal by the next day.
The scary part is that it looks like you won’t even feel that you have been bitten, and will know that when you start having problems breathing, and when that happens every second counts.
Looking at the colors, it looks like it was in fight mode. The person holding it could already be dead.
To be fair, there is an alternative that says “I am defenseless and trying to look like a more intimidating thing” in which case the thing would be harmless
Add comment