What was meant to be a relaxing family trip before the school year turned into a painful and unexpected encounter for an Austin woman — and now she’s warning others to be cautious.
Joy Kennedy and her family were visiting Port Aransas for the first time when the trip took a turn.
“Suddenly I just felt something shoot into my foot,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t know what it was. I was afraid to look down, but when I did, blood was just coming down.”
Kennedy had been stung by a stingray, its sharp barb puncturing her foot.
“It’s sharp and pointed, but then it has serration that goes downward,” said Jace Tunnel, director of community engagement at the Harte Research Institute. “Whenever it cuts you or pokes you, those skin cells come off real easily and release the venom.”
Kennedy, bleeding with every step, found a lifeguard who bandaged her foot. But the pain grew so intense that she went to the emergency room.
“The sting was more painful than when I got my hip dislocated,” she said.
At the hospital, doctors took X-rays and soaked her foot in hot water — the recommended way to neutralize stingray venom.
“What neutralizes it is hot water,” Tunnel said. “Getting hot water on it as much as you can bear will alleviate the pain.”
Kennedy shared the experience on social media, quickly drawing responses from locals who offered advice — including a reminder to use the “stingray shuffle,” dragging your feet along the sand as you enter the water so stingrays have time to swim away.
Tunnel said stingrays are often found in shallow waters during the summer, feeding on clams, crabs and shrimp.
“The fish was not meaning to hurt her,” he said. “But when they get stepped on, their tail whips up and that’s how the barb sticks up and you end up getting cut.”
Kennedy now calls the experience being “kissed by a stingray.” She’s recovering well after a tetanus shot and antibiotics — and despite the scare, her family plans to make their trip to the area an annual tradition, minus the stingray encounter.
Tunnel said stingray injuries are rarely deadly. If stung, he recommends immediately finding a lifeguard, who can determine whether further medical attention is needed.
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