A 19-year-old man fears for his life after he was stung by a scorpion on his foot in Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain.
Dylan Strydom was visiting his grandmother Sharon Botha in Austin Crescent, where she says the venomous goggas roam freely on a field opposite her home.
Sharon, 58, says the scorpion, the size of a pakkie entjies, stung Dylan on the big toe and second toe of his right foot inside her house.
Dylan says the pain was excruciating. “It felt like it was on fire and being frozen at the same time. I was very confused and afraid because I did not know what would happen to me.
Sharon’s son Sherwyn Botha, 28, rescued Dylan as he moered the scorpion morsdood with a sloffie.
He was rushed to the Lentegeur Hospital where a doctor examined him and gave him pain medication.
The young man was kept overnight and told to return if he experiences any nausea or drowsiness.
The Daily Voice contacted the Health Department, who could not confirm yesterday if the sting was poisonous, or if he had been given anti-venom treatment.
Dylan says he is still in pain and a blister has formed on his big toe.
“It feels like there is something in there but the rest of my toe is dead, I am worried because I have to work on Monday,” he says.
He wears safety boots at his welding job, but because he has heard people died from being stung, his nerves are klaar.
Sharon adds that two of her neighbours have had encounters with scorpions, one finding a gogga in her bedroom.
“I am sick of these things coming from the field and being a danger to our children. He does not even live here and look what happened. Something has to be done or the next person could be seriously hurt,” says Sharon.
“But he survived a sting and that is most important.”