- I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the spike zone
with the lionfish.
Three.
Agh!
Gah!
Agh!
- [Mark] You all right?
Did he get you?
- Oh, yeah.
Agh.
Ugh.
- [Mark] Okay let's get you home.
- Oh, man, dude.
I'm lightheaded, I'm lightheaded.
All right, maybe it is a little worse than I thought.
(dramatic music)
- [Mark] Let's get you upstairs.
- Woah.
- [Mark] Where are the keys?
- It's actually really pretty bad.
Let's just like open the door and not film it.
Dude, my arm's on like, fire.
- [Mark] Yeah I know.
What are you doing over here?
- Okay, so, (sighs).
First, most important thing.
Hot water, gotta get hot water on my hand
as soon as possible.
Gotta heat it up.
I'll sit down here.
Ah.
Wow.
- [Mark] You all right?
- That is some radiating pain.
Different than the tarantula hawk and bullet ant, for sure.
Okay.
Let me collect myself.
- [Mark] Yeah, so what's the game plan here,
how do we treat this?
- Okay the most important thing for venom like this...
You can also do this with stingray venom,
lionfish venom, most marine creatures that can sting you
and put venom into your body, is hot water.
As hot as you can stand.
That heat breaks down peptides and proteins in the venom.
But the first thing I wanna do
is actually just get some hydrogen peroxide
onto the wound and clean it off first.
Ah, that feels actually really nice and cool on my hand.
See that bubbling up?
- [Mark] Yep.
- [Coyote] That's just soaking down into the wounds.
- [Mark] So the venom from the lionfish can actually
be neutralized, is that correct.
- Yeah.
I'm sorry guys, I know you're like, watching this,
you think, "He's barely even talking."
- [Mark] Yeah, look what's happening.
- (laughs) Yeah my hand is in a lot of pain right now.
Wow, I am gettin' lightheaded, too.
Guys I'm sorry.
This is probably the least put together--
- [Mark] Do we need to stop?
Do we need to like, be worried?
- No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I'll get through this.
I will get through this.
As soon as...
Ah, Mario, will you go check on that.
It's gonna take a while for that water to really heat up.
Go see if that water's starting to boil at all.
So the epsom salt, I'm just gonna go ahead
and dump this in now.
- [Mark] How much do you put in?
- Oh, you don't need a lot.
I'm gonna put in more than you probably need.
Probably just need a couple teaspoons.
I'm puttin' in...
- [Mark] Now what does the salt do?
- Smells good.
That salt will actually also
help break down the proteins in the venom.
So, it also soothes, it also kills bacteria.
It's gonna kill and break down the venom.
It's just good.
They tell you use epsom salt if you can.
If you don't have epsom salt,
just warm water will do a perfectly good job
of breaking down...
Breaking down the venom.
Agh!
(laughs) Oh man.
It is worse now than when I was stung.
It's worse than it was two minutes after.
I can feel it.
It is just throbbing.
- Here's the water, it's pretty much boiled now.
- Okay yeah, you gotta dump that.
Just dump as much as you can, as much as will fit in here.
- Ah, ah, ah, ah, hot, hot, hot!
Ooh.
That is almost too hot to handle,
but that's okay, I'm gonna keep my hand in there,
that's definitely gonna help
break down proteins in the venom.
The most important thing that could happen right now is
that venom breaking down.
Let me try to just kinda work some of that into the wound.
Kind of massage the wound there a little bit.
Aw man.
- [Mark] You're not getting the instant relief
you thought was comin' your way?
- It's not instant, it's not instant.
We gotta give it a few minutes.
Okay, let's do this.
Let's cut the camera--
- [Mark] Okay.
- For a couple minutes here.
I'm just gonna let my hand soak for about 15 minutes.
We'll come back and I'll show you guys
the last steps here for taking care of the wound.
- [Mark] Okay.
Coyote, it's been about ten minutes.
How we feeling?
- Ten minutes.
Feeling better!
Believe it or not my hand...
Ah.
Getting a little pruny. (laughs)
That's okay though.
Still sore.
Definitely still sore.
I'm gonna continue to soak it but I think it is
at least to the point where I'm able to
converse with you guys a little bit better.
The warm water definitely helped.
Not immediately, it certainly was not immediate.
I would say about five to six minutes in
I was noticing some relief.
My hand is still throbbing, but it's better.
It's considerably better, in fact.
Keep in mind that everybody's body
reacts differently to venom.
That is the most important point that I can make.
You can be stung by a honeybee
and go into anaphylactic shock.
Now, there are very few reported cases
of people having a really negative reaction
to a lionfish spiking and the venom.
So, if you are spined, barbed, whatever you wanna call it,
by one of these fish, definitely pay attention
to what happens to your body.
Seek medical attention if you feel as if
you're going into anaphylactic shock,
or having any sort of allergic reaction.
Now, where there still are the marks from the spines,
I basically just want to apply my favorite, Neosporin.
Brand new bottle, I always bring a brand new one
on every single trip.
But you basically just wanna take Neosporin,
ooze that out there, put it on the wounds
and pay attention to the wounds to make sure
that you're not having any secondary infections set in.
So I'm gonna let that Neosporin sit there.
I'm gonna keep that open to the air
and let that just soak in and do it's thing.
Now this Neosporin is for pain and it will also
kill a lot of the bacteria that potentially went
into my hand.
Now, if you feel as if you're starting to have
an allergic reaction, you can certainly take
some Benadryl.
I'll probably take one of these just as a safety precaution,
and then of course any basic ibuprofen will work
for reducing the pain and the swelling.
Wow.
Well I am still lightheaded, and,
believe it or not the pain is actually kind of
starting to come back in my hand
now that it's cooling off.
I wanna get it back in the hot water, but...
Oh, guys, that was um...
- [Mario] That was intense.
- That was intense.
- [Mark] Yeah.
I'm glad you made it through okay.
We were gettin' a little nervous.
Mario, that was...
That was kinda scary there for a second.
- Yeah.
- Well, I mean guys keep in mind that is the first
time that my body has been exposed to the venom
of a marine creature.
And I was nervous for this one, I will not lie,
and like I told you guys on the boat this morning,
that was the first time aside from the manatee episode
that I've ever snorkeled before,
so I was just excited to be able to catch one of these fish,
get up close for the cameras.
Hopefully we learned a lot about these animals,
and like I always say, whatever you do,
do not repeat what you saw me doing at home,
or on your own, admire these animals from a safe distance,
and everybody will be safe and sound.
Agh!
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Come here, warm water.
Ah.
If you missed the main episode,
make sure to go back and watch as I enter the spike zone
with the lionfish.
Ouch!
And don't forget, subscribe,
so you can join me and the crew
on our next aquatic adventure.