They call it poison for a reason

[kdm0811]

This week, a perfectly healthy friend of mine passed away from multiple organ failure as a result of exposure to poison ivy.

Be careful out there guys.

 

[cowboy357]

I,ve never heard of that before , but not only sad to here , Good to know . thanks for the warning . Sorry for the loss of Your friend . Bob

 

[LeadPoison]

Wow. Very Shocking. I never knew that could happen.

I have heard of someone who burned the vines and inhaled the smoke and got poison ivy in his lungs. He was hospitlaized for several days, but made it through.

 

[Conservation]

Sorry to hear that. Be sure to put wild parsnip on your list not to touch also. It seems to be taking over here in Illinois, and it is nasty. Some call it mustard weed. It welts up much worse and faster than poison ivy, and if the blister pops, the liquid from the blister spreads it some more. I have a high tolerance to poison ivy, but my mother sure doesn't. My tolerance to wild parsnip is just about nothing.

 

[psj12]

Yes, I have heard of it. When we were kids my brother got it bad. He was very sick and in bed. I remember having to help put folded towels under his legs to soak up the fluid that was draining from them. He ran a very high fever and was admitted to the hospital for quite som time. My brother was always alergic to it. Even someone burning brush quite far away would start him.

After he was recovering from his worst bout as a child we went to the beach camping and the doctor warned my mother not to let him near the water as his wounds would become infected. Feeling sorry for him and not being terribly bright children we helped him sneak away and go swimming. Within a couple days his poison Ivy started drying up and my mother was astonished at this miraculous cure until we told her why, and what we had done. Even though this was the cure it didn't help my burning backside. From that day on as soon as he caught it he would go to the ocean.

 

[Transit]

Some people are very sensitive to the stuff. I know someone that is sensitive to the poison ivy pollen. Just wispier "poison ivy" and he breaks out.

 

[two_bit_score]

This week, a perfectly healthy friend of mine passed away from multiple organ failure as a result of exposure to poison ivy.

Be careful out there guys.

Can you please provide some additional details? Not that we just want gory stuff but there has got to be some more to this.

Was it inhaled? Forest fire and he got in the smoke? Knocked out in a patch and didn't come to for hours after rolling all over it? What? Did he have some other condition or disease that made it worse for him?

 

[Skyco]

Sorry for your loss, two_bit_score .
I too would like to know more about how this happened.

 

[kdm0811]

He was 58 years old. He got into the stuff while he was using a string trimmer in short pants. The poison cause his lower legs to blister and swell just as you would expect. But then his liver and kidneys shut down from the strain. He was dead 10 days after exposure.

 

[two_bit_score]

He was 58 years old. He got into the stuff while he was using a string trimmer in short pants. The poison cause his lower legs to blister and swell just as you would expect. But then his liver and kidneys shut down from the strain. He was dead 10 days after exposure.

Thanks for the additional info. That does explain a lot. Anyone could get a bad case of PI from doing that and if it covered the legs that would be a very large area of the body for the liver and kidney's to fight off infection from.

One more question did he know he was alergic to it?