A child was stabbed in the chest by a catfish’s barb while on a fishing trip in New Port Richey, Florida.
According to News 4 Jax, the mother of the injured child was driving towards the hospital to seek treatment yesterday afternoon, but stopped in New Port Richey to call 911 after the child began to have trouble breathing.
The Pasco County Fire Rescue team tweeted out:
“#ALERT- PENETRATING TRAUMA- NEW PORT RICHEY- Child listed as a trauma alert after being stabbed in the chest by a catfish.
While headed to the hospital with their mother, the child experienced difficulty breathing. Firefighters responded and listed the child as a trauma alert.”
Spokesman Corey Dierdorff said that while treating the child, firefighters discovered the barb was 1 to 1 1/2 inches into the child’s chest, causing the child to be airlifted to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.
Dierdorff said he did not know how or where the child was stung, or the exact age or sex of the child, but said the child was under 10-years-old.
Catfish have spines and stingers on their fins and underneath their bodies, so fishermen are always cautious while catching these types of fish. However, Dierdorff admitted that he’d never seen or heard of anything like this before:
“You hear of fisherman that might be cut by a barb or hit in the back of the leg and get an infection, but never heard of one penetrating the chest.”
This is absolutely heartbreaking news, considering the child was extremely y0ung, and was just doing something that they love.
The situation feels eerily similar to Steve Erwin’s death, who passed away after getting stung by a stingray in his chest.
According to WebMD, catfish stings are typically non-life threatening, but can cause swelling and numbness and need to be treated with antibiotics to avoid infection.
