Mother, 34, almost dies as family are put in quarantine after coral poisoning

A mother nearly died cleaning out the family fish tank as she was overcome by the world’s second deadliest toxin.

Katie Stevenson, 34, had to be put into isolation for 48 hours and have her home sealed off by a Hazardous Area Response Team after she was poisoned by coral.

Doctors battled to save her from palytoxin, a chemical released by the living organism when it comes under attack.

It causes severe and potentially fatal respiratory distress, for which there is no antidote. Medics were able to stabilise Katie with IV fluids and antibiotics.

Her husband Mark and their three daughters also had to be put in a lock-down ward, suffering similar but less severe symptoms, as did the paramedics who took them to hospital from their home in Newport, Telford, Shropshire.

Ambulances bringing in other patients to Princess Royal Hospital, Telford, were directed to Shrewbury instead to avoid further contamination.

Mrs Stevenson, who’d never even heard of palytoxin, is still unable to eat due to an inflamed stomach from the exposure on July 30 and is calling for warning leaflets to be handed out whenever coral is sold.

She developed a raging fever less than an hour after she finished scrubbing the coral from an ornamental bridge in their small, 58-litre marine aquarium

Katie began shivering, shaking and hallucinating from the effects of the poison after she and husband Mark, 50, decided to clean the tank and replace marine fish with tropical varieties.

Within a couple of hours of scrubbing the bridge under hot water she developed a sore throat. As she became more breathless and feverish she searched the internet and discovered that coral can release a devastating toxin.

The 34-year-old was cleaning her fish tank (left) when her coral (right) released the deadly chemical to protect itself 

But cases are so rare that at first neither the non-emergency 111 service nor the doctors who treated her believed she was suffering anything more serious than a viral infection.

‘I was shaking from head to toe,’ she said. ‘I had blankets on me and I was freezing. My heart rate had gone sky-high, and my temperature was really high.

‘Later on the doctors told me and Mark that if we’d gone to sleep that night we wouldn’t have woken up.

‘When I got into bed I couldn’t touch myself I was that hot. I thought I was going to die. I’ve had nightmares ever since and I can’t sleep. I’ve had a crap time.’

She said neither she nor Mark had any idea that the coral in their tank was a potential killer.

‘We bought the coral and didn’t have a clue – they don’t give you any danger leaflets or anything like that,’ she said. ‘You should be told about the toxins so you can know what you’re touching and how to clean it.

‘I didn’t have a clue. We’ve had this fish tank for 12 months and always kept the coral underwater.

‘We completely emptied the tank, took out the coral and started scrubbing it. When you scrub it, because it’s alive, it lets off toxins.

‘All sorts of things were going through my mind,’ Katie said. ‘My kids could have died. We could have died. I’ve not slept properly since.

‘We had gone on holiday and our fish had died, so we decided to get rid of the tank. We completely emptied the tank and started scrubbing it. When you scrub it, it lets off toxins. The house had to be completely cordoned off by the police and fire brigade.

‘About 10 minutes after cleaning the tank, I started to get a really dry cough. I said to Mark ‘I have a sore throat coming’, he said the same thing. We left it an hour, and I started getting really bad shivers. My temperature went up to 42.5 Celsius. We called 111 and they sent an ambulance.

‘It was terrifying. The paramedics who came to get me were wearing masks. The whole A&E was isolated. They told us if we’d gone to sleep, we wouldn’t have woken up.’

Katie was the most severely affected, followed by Mark and their three girls Lacey, 11, Taleisha, seven, and Skyla, one. Fourteen-year-old son Cole was staying with a cousin and was unaffected.

Katie initially called the 111 service. ‘I’d Googled coral poisoning and had been frightened to death by what I read. I phoned 111 for advice and they said take paracetamol. They thought it was just a virus. She said it sounded like a viral infection. She said go to bed and said she would phone back in half an hour to check.

‘She called back sooner than that and by then I was shaking from head to toe. I had blankets on me and I was freezing. She sent an ambulance for me. Mark was suffering but he wasn’t as bad. I’d had much more direct exposure because I’d been at the sink scrubbing it under the hot tap.’

When medics realised they were dealing with a case of Palytoxin they sent another ambulance to collect Mark and the three girls, as well as Katie’s mother, Tina, who had been to the house. They were all feeling unwell, suffering cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea.

The paramedics who brought them in, as well as the crew who had earlier transported Katie, and were by then at home and sleeping, also had to brought in and isolated.

‘We were all one room and nobody was allowed in,’ said Katie. ‘Anybody treating us wore masks and overalls and we couldn’t leave for at least 24 hours.

‘It was just absolutely petrifying. Our home was cordoned off and had to be deep-cleaned before we were allowed back in (on 2 Aug). They took our keys off us and they let off some sort of smoke bombs to get rid of the toxins.

‘People need to know what they’re dealing with if they have a marine fish tank. Nobody seems to know how dangerous coral can be and we only found out the hard way.

‘They should hand out leaflets when they sell coral, warning of the dangers. It nearly killed us and I don’t want people to go through what we went through.’

Katie and Mark decoded to ditch marine fish, in salt water, after returning from a holiday in Cornwall and finding three of the fish had died.

‘I said to Mark let’s get rid of it and put tropical fish in instead. We didn’t want to ditch the coral bridge, which cost £60 or £70 so I started scrubbing all the coral off. What I now know is that coral is a living organism and it protects itself.

‘I was cleaning it with a tough brush. Mark said he’d make a drink and I felt like one because I had a sore throat. He said he did too, and I started wondering why we both did.

‘The we both started coughing a lot. I Googled it because we could smell something like green algae.

‘We were both getting worse. Mark was about 20 minutes behind me. I started getting a high fever and my temperature was up to 42.5C.’

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it was called to a property in Newport, Telford in the early hours of Wednesday 31st July).

It said: ‘On arrival, an ambulance crew found several patients who were feeling unwell.

‘Due to the nature of the circumstances, a second ambulance, two paramedic officers and Hazardous Area Response Team also attended.

‘Six patients received treatment on scene before being taken to Princess Royal Hospital for further assessment.

‘Four ambulance staff were also assessed at hospital as a precaution; two were from this incident and two who had been called to the same property the previous day. All were later discharged.’