A Melbourne teenager has been left with dozens of tiny bites on his feet and legs that wouldn’t stop bleeding, after simply wading in the ocean.
Sam Kanizay, 16, was soaking his legs in the water at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton, Melbourne, on Saturday evening when he said he felt his legs tingling.
He told Fairfax Media he presumed it was because his legs were sore from playing football and the water was cold.
But after coming out of the water about 30 minutes later, he found his legs were covered in tiny sores which were oozing with blood.
Sam Kanizay, 16, emerged from the ocean where he had been soaking his legs to find dozens of tiny bites that would not stop bleeding
Pictured: Sam was treated by medical staff at two hospitals over the weekend, who could not stem the bleeding
It is believed Sam has dozens of pin prick-sized bites on his feet and legs (pictured)
‘My first instinct was that I must have stepped on a rock,’ he said.
‘But I realised that couldn’t have been it, because it was evenly distributed over my whole ankle and foot.’
After attempts to stop the bleeding were unsuccessful, the teenager spent his weekend at two different hospitals, where doctors also tried and failed to stop the sores from bleeding.
One nurse advised the bites could be from sea lice, but it was no more than a ‘guess’.
WHAT ARE SEA LICE?
Pictured: A sea louse
Sea lice which cause tiny, pin-prick like bites are a miniscule jellyfish or stinger larvae.
They have the same stinging cells as an adult jellyfish, though they can only attack a small area because of their size.
Sam’s father Jarrod said the teenager was a ‘stoic kid’ and he was expecting his son to make a full recovery
A nurse told the teenager the bites might have been from sea lice, but she was only guessing
Sam’s father Jarrod said his son’s injury ‘fascinated’ all of the staff working in the emergency room at Sandringham Hospital.
‘They were all on Google afterwards, hypothesising as to what happened,’ he said.
‘They pretty much had 10 different hypotheses but nothing yet.’
Mr Kanizay told Daily Mail Australia on Sunday night the bleeding had finally stopped, and he had high hopes for a quick and full recovery.
‘Sam is a stoic kid, so he will be fine,’ he said.
Sam told News Corp he would probably use the pool to ice his legs in the future, but it wouldn’t keep him away from the beach completely.
‘Plenty of people go for a swim in there so it’s probably just a one-off thing,’ he said.
The disturbing injuries won’t keep Sam away from the beach, but he says he might soak his feet elsewhere for now
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