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By Debbie Williams Reporter

M30o93H7pQ09L8X1t49cHY01Z5j4TT91fGfr Unwelcome Beach Visitor

Published: Tue, August 14, 2007 - 4:54 pm
Last Updated: Tue, August 14, 2007 - 9:25 pm

Debbie Williams

Something is in the water and it’s causing a lot of pain. Stingrays are showing up all along Gulf Coast beaches and beachgoers are finding out about them the hard way. There’s something in the water, "Usually in the last part of the summer we see stingrays moving in on the beach the water is really clear warm all the bait's on the beach and that's why they're here." Chuck Myers works on the beach and says the stingrays are making their presence known in a very painful way. “I've seen one person step on a stingray hit him in the foot he was still able to walk off the beach by himself but he looked like he was in a lot of pain." Marine biologist Steve Heath says stingray wounds should be taken seriously. "It will leave a very ragged wound, it has a toxin associated with it and it's also highly covered with bacteria so you've got almost a guarantee of an infection." Because of the stings a lot of beach trips are ending up here at local hospitals and urgent care centers. On average four or five patients a day have been coming in over the last couple of weeks. "Lately we've been having lots of problems." Dr. Chris Frailie is an ER doctor at South Baldwin Regional Medical Center. "When they sting they stab with the tail and inject a neurotoxin so it would be comparable to a red wasp sting but very, very intense." Frailie says a trip to the doctor is necessary after a sting. "We like to make sure people are updated on tetanus we like to get their pain under control and we typically put people on antibiotics to prevent infection." You can avoid stepping on a stingray just by shuffling your feet as you enter the water and that just might help you avoid a trip to the hospital too. The stingray sting is extremely painful but soaking the wound in extremely hot water provides nearly instant relief. The pain will last between six and eight hours.

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