Sea Urchin Spines

Hello All   

  Looking for advice for a friend here at the station,

 His wife stepped on a sea urchin on a LA beach, spine is in her foot,
 
 They went to ER down in LA,
but the Dr. would not take out the spine due to his wife is pregnant....

This happened on Saturday, she is now just taking Tylenol and soaking foot in Warm water...

any other suggestions on how one would deal with this???

if that was my wife i would amputate..................the head off that doctor.   good-luck.

Find another doctor, don't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Hey Don,

    My wife got a lot in her leg when I crashed us into some rocks on a double sit on top at Cook's monument on the big island. She wasn't too happy. The locals always say "you got to pee on it ,man".
But they also told me at the local store that it is very common, and eveybody puts vinegar on it. She said she sells out of it sometimes because of the surfers and the urchins.
  It seems like if they are on the bottom of her foot that she would have to get a pro to remove it. Some of the bits were in my wife's leg for years. Congrats on the 'dine winner. Tim

i stepped on one in jamaica once and the dive master had me poor hydrogyn peroxide over it, it disolves the spines. it took about three days for them to disolve, hope this helps, cameron

I did a prolonged rockgarden crashlanding on the sm coast that put something like 11 holes in my glass yak and left more lacerations and urchin spines stuck in my bod than I wanted to count

My pop pulled them with pliers but it was pretty dicey because they have a tendancy to break when you grip them with steel tools

It's a while ago but I remember some of the tips festered and floated out for a long time after

sorry not much help there but you probably want to bite the bullet one way or another and get rid of the thing

I am an avid diver on the North coast and when i dive i use weightlifting gloves with my fingers exposed so i can pick up rock crabs and put fish on the stringer.
when i accidently get a urchin spine in my finger i take a pin and dig it out. The spine has little hooks on it so you need to push it out with the pin. This should be easy to do in the foot area.

the doctor is worried about being sued, anything goes wrong with the baby and he can get sued becasue he tramatized the MOM...Try another doctor or go to a clinic.

Update....

 Said pregnant wife went to another Dr. today and they pulled out a 1" spine out of her foot...

  Ouch!!!!       Quite a traumatic experience for her...

 Thanks for the Replies,

 Can Always count on NCKA to have Great Collected Wisdom .... 

Send that first doctor a nasty note

Send that first doctor a nasty note

Either that or a 1" urchin spine in his foot and see how he likes it.

Dont blame the first doc, he has or knows someone who has been in malpratice litagation, and that nasty expensive stuff. Blame the legal system.

man those sound painful, really hope i can avoid ever having to find out

It might be time for you to build up some special WAF points. with her being a invalid for a little while.