‘Elephant kicking your heart’: Man recalls horror moment he was stung by world’s deadliest fish during Aussie holiday

A man has recalled the moment he was stung by the most venomous fish in the world while holidaying in Australia – equating the experience to being “like an elephant kicking your heart”. While swimming at Haarson’s Cove near Karratha in northern Western Australia, 26-year-old Kacper Krupa lowered his left hand into the waist-deep water, reaching down and touching what he thought was sand. Instead, something stung his finger. When he pulled his hands out of the water, he found his finger slightly bleeding and starting to swell. “The pain was so severe,” the Mr Krupa, from Germany, told the ABC. The pain quickly began travelling from his finger into his arm, making its way up towards his shoulder and engulfing his entire chest. “It felt like an elephant was kicking your heart,’ he recalled. Mr Krupa, a trained paramedic, knew he had to get himself to the hospital, but as his girlfriend was still learning to drive, he had to take the wheel himself. “She was basically just changing the gears, I was pressing the clutch because I couldn’t use my left hand,” he said. “I was trying not to rip off the steering wheel because of the pain.” When Mr Krupa arrived at the hospital, doctors weren’t entirely sure what had bitten him, so they followed standard snakebite protocol and plunged his hand into a combination of vinegar and hot water to stop the spread of the venom. Following numerous blood tests, doctors now believe Mr Krupa was stung by a stonefish, one of the most poisonous fish on the planet – and one of the most difficult to spot at the bottom of the water. Mr Krupa spent the day at hospital while he recovered from his painful sting, and was given a week-long course of antibiotics to aid his recovery. He has inch been discharged from hospital. Found along the coastline of Australia, particularly in the northern parts of the country, the creatures are extremely well camouflaged thanks to their grey or brown stony exterior, and feature 13 spines along its dorsal fin that can inject toxic poison directly. Usually hidden among rubble or coral bottoms, stonefish also tend to bury themselves in sand as they wait for their prey to approach. If stung, the venom can cause severe pain across the body, which spreads quickly and can cause difficulty breathing, vomiting and loss of consciousness. Antivenene for stonefish was first developed in 1959, which can reduce the liklehood of death or injury, though no deaths have been recorded from stonefish stings in Australia since European settlement. Despite no reported deaths related to stonefish stings, people are warned to stay cautious when they’re in the water by wearing protective footwear and watching where they place their feet and hands. If someone is suspected of being stung by a stonefish, they are encouraged to seek urgent medical care.