A toddler needed parts of his skin removed after he brushed Britain’s most dangerous plant leaving him covered with painful blisters.
Kayvon Wright developed red spots on his face and hands the morning after walking with his mum near Chard Reservoir in Somerset, England.
Initially diagnosed as chickenpox, the spots soon developed into painful blisters, and the two-year-old boy was rushed to a burns unit.
Two days later it was realised hogweed was the cause of Kayvon’s injuries.
Mum Samantha Morgan from Ebbw Vale, Wales, said: ‘It’s almost like he’d had a chip pan poured over him, the burn was that severe.
‘The blisters filled up, and they spread all over his mouth and his face.
‘He had a massive blister on his face and it popped on his cheek, and it was oozing.
‘When we went to the Bristol burns unit they had to remove some skin. I think that was the most horrific thing for me: I will never forget my son’s screams as they were taking his skin off him.’
She continued: ‘It was horrendous. It was absolutely horrible. He was really stressed out by that point.
‘He was in so much pain that he was just lethargic, he didn’t want to do anything, he was just lying in a hospital bed with bandages on his hands and his legs.
Giant hogweed carries a sap that stops the skin protecting itself against the sun’s rays, causing gruesome burns when exposed to natural light.
It often causes no immediate pain, meaning its victims can continue to burn in the sun heedless of any problem.
Miss Morgan, 32, said Kayvon would’ve ‘literally just brushed against it’.
She continued: ‘He had to go on antibiotics just in case of infections, he had to have drips for fluids, and pain relief. It was quite a lot.
‘I think he was in Bristol burns unit for six or seven days. I think it was mostly second-degree burns, nearly third-degree.’
Kayvon suffered his ordeal in 2019, and now his mum is speaking out to warn other parents before the giant hogweed makes its annual return.
Miss Morgan said: ‘Every year I put a post on Facebook about it now and so do my friends, because we like to raise awareness of it as much as we can.
‘None of us even knew it existed before my child got burned with it.’
Kayvon, now six, had big red blotches on his skin for eight months after he was burned.
But the after effects of giant hogweed exposure would last much longer.
‘He’s only now got his natural protection on his skin back,’ said his mum.
‘Before now, even if he goes out in a little sunlight, we’ve had to put suncream on him because he burns really quickly in those areas where he’s had hogweed burns.
Miss Morgan urged parents to be vigilant against the plant.
She said: ‘You don’t expect to be walking down the street with your child, your child picks a flower and all of a sudden ends up burnt.
‘Don’t just let them touch everything.’
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