This Teen Got Hookworms After His Friends Buried Him In The Sand At The Beach

[Judi Lynn]

A church trip turned into a nightmare for this Memphis family.

Headshot of Lauren Strapagiel
Lauren Strapagiel
BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on July 27, 2018, at 5:42 p.m. ET

What started as a fun stop at a beach during a church trip has turned into a nightmare of a hookworm infection for this Tennessee teen.



Kelli Mulhollen Dumas

Michael Dumas, 17, visited Florida in June while on a mission trip with his church. During the trip, they stopped by Pompano Beach where Michael was buried in the sand, as one does at the beach.

That same night he started feeling unwell and woke up in the middle of the night feeling itchy and sweating. By the time he got home, everyone thought he just had an ear infection, and he was treated with ear drops.

But the symptoms didn’t stop. Soon, he was sleeping all the time, and felt too lethargic to stay up for more than a few hours.

“He had between four and six red, raised bumps on his backside,” Kelli Mulhollen Dumas, Michael’s mom, told BuzzFeed News.

More:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/laurenstrapagiel/hookworm-infection-florida-beach-teen

(Graphic images are available on the page should you want to see them after clicking individual photographs. I couldn't muster the will to see them, myself.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Also:

Hookworms Burrowed Into a Teenager's Skin After Visiting a Florida Beach
The photos are as NSFW as you'd imagine.


LINDSEY BEVER, THE WASHINGTON POST
28 JUL 2018
Warning: This story contains graphic images and descriptions of how hookworms burrowed into a teenage boy's skin.

https://www.sciencealert.com/hookworms-burrowed-into-a-teenager-s-skin-after-a-visit-to-a-florida-beach

[RKP5637]

1. Poor kid. Horrible! And one should always wear shoes/foot covering while at the beach.

I had no idea. I grew up in the water and on the beach, never had this happen way back.

To avoid potential infection, the CDC recommends "not to walk barefoot in areas where hookworm is common and where there may be human fecal contamination of the soil" or to ingest the soil.

Montgomery, with the CDC, said that people should wear shoes on the beach and then sit on a towel. She said it's also important for pet owners to have their dogs and cats regularly dewormed.

Dumas told The Post on Wednesday she wants others to be aware of hookworms because "I don't want anyone else to go through what my son has been through."

"I'll never walk on the beach again without shoes," she said.

2018 © The Washington Post

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. So sad.

And so unexpected. I spent countless hours as a child at the beach. It's hard to imagine that something so terrible can happen after an innocent beach visit.

[Duppers]

3. Untreated pets can be a problem too.

I looked at the pics (dh used to work with burn victims, so this was a piece of cake in comparison).

Thanks for posting. Passing on to my son who was walking Myrtle Beach yesterday, and knowing him, barefooted of course.