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RESIDENTS are being warned to beware of a common cactus-like plant growing in Bahrain after an expat businessman was left needing emergency hospital treatment after he was covered in a mist of poisonous sap.
Dave Murphy was clearing the side garden of his new home in Saar and was pushing the plant over a wall into a skip when several of the green branches of the pencil cactus, each roughly the size of an asparagus tip, split, showering his face and arms.
It produces a white, thick substance and vapour from the slightest seeping wound before congealing. This sap contains a toxic component which can cause severe eye damage and even permanent blindness.
Mr Murphy, 53, a commercial consultant, said: “It is almost impossible to fully describe the excruciating pain it caused. At first I thought some sand or grit had blown into my eyes but within seconds I was overcome by a burning sensation like someone was slashing hot knives across my eyes.”
He ran into the kitchen and put his face under running tap water, used eyes baths and then rushed to the bathroom to try and wash away the pain under the shower, but little eased his suffering.
His wife Joanna, 43, the Dilmun Club’s executive committee secretary, grabbed a sample of the plant and took him to the nearby American Mission Hospital’s Saar Clinic.
“I do not want other people to go through the same hell and it is important to make other residents of Bahrain aware of the potential danger in their gardens,” she said.
Fortunately an eye specialist was on duty at the time of the incident last Thursday afternoon and administered several eye baths, lubricants, drops, creams and ice packs into and over his eyes during an intensive two-hour period.
Mr Murphy’s eyes were then covered with patches, which he was told to keep in place for 24-hours.
The speedy treatment meant he did not suffer permanent damage although he still has to apply prescribed ointments and drops three-times a day into his eyes.
Mr Murphy, who works in Saudi Arabia, has been based in Bahrain for more than a year. His wife and son, Callum, eleven, recently joined him from Worcester in the UK. Son Stephan, 18, will join them shortly.
The family moved into a villa in a compound last month and last weekend Mr Murphy decided to clear an overgrown side garden to make it more spacious and secure for the family’s new pets, desert dogs Alfie and Bailey.
Ironically, he had been wearing a pair of safety glasses and gloves to cut and hack away trees and plants but took them off when it came to moving the debris into the skip.
“I thought I had finished all the dangerous work, but I should have noticed the saw I was using was covered with the sap. It quickly congealed and stuck to it like superglue.
“The pencil cactus was large and overgrown so rather than mess around I cut it off close to the roots. I had no idea lifting it up would cause the little pencil-sized stems to split. But before I knew it, I was covered in a mist and in complete agony, the worst pain I have ever felt in my life.
“My arms are still burned but it was the eyes that really suffered.”
The pencil cactus is a popular landscaping and house plant as well as a poisonous threat. It is not a true cactus but a member of the Euphorbia family. It is originally from tropical parts of Africa and India and can naturally grow into a 30-foot tall tree with pencil-size green branches and can now be found in desert conditions and all over the world for sale in garden centres.
Scientists suggest the milky sap evolved as a deterrent to herbivores. Latex on skin should be washed off immediately and thoroughly. Congealed latex is insoluble in water, but can be removed with an emulsifier like milk or soap.
A doctor should be consulted if inflammation occurs as experts say even vapours can cause irritation to the eyes and throat from several metres away. The plant should be handled with caution and kept away from children and pets.
