MERIDIAN - A Meridian family is recovering after being exposed to a poisonous toxin in their home.
The father, Tony Arellano, is now blind in one eye, he and his daughter had to spend the night in the hospital and their family dog died after it was exposed to the toxin.
The source: coral in their saltwater aquarium.
Aquariums are a hobby for Tony Arellano, and just two weeks ago he started setting up his newest tank. He purchased some live rock from a store, but needed more and found a good deal for some on Facebook. Arellano says he bought 60 pounds from the seller. He was told it had dead coral on it and through it would stay that way.
“When I put the rock inside my tank somehow, I must have scratched my hand on a rock and it cut my hand open,” he said. “I wasn't too concerned about it. I didn't think anything of it really.”
What he didn't know, how serious the next few days would be.
“I had rubbed my eye at some time in between there it was just my eye itching,” he said. “Within about 30 minutes my eye just started to go really red, blood shot, I couldn't see it out of it.”
He went to the emergency room where doctors told him to see an optometrist, so he left. But a few hours later his eye swelled up and he couldn't see. Again, after more tests at the ER, he was sent home.
“The next morning, I could not wake up for anything,” Arellano said. “The ER doctor contacted me and asked how I was doing. I said, ‘I'm barely moving. My eye is completely shut. The cut from my hand, the redness, was going all the way down to my elbow.’ She said, ‘Drop what you're doing immediately. Get in to the hospital.’”
Arellano ended up in the ICU where he finally learned the source of the problem: a poisonous toxin from a coral on the rocks in the aquarium.
But not before his daughter was hospitalized and his family dog passed away.
Bill Knight, the owner of Fish Aquariums and Stuff in Boise, says the coral Arellano handled is a common one.
“One particular coral that is extremely toxic it is called Palythoas,” he said. “Some species are a lot more toxic than others, some are very inert and do not hurt you.”
Knight says there's no easy way to know how toxic your Palythoa coral could be, so he advises handling any coral with caution.
“Never touch it, never try to scrub it off of a rock, never, like especially never, try to boil it or even run hot water over it,” he said.
Those can all trigger the toxin, something Arellano learned the hard way.
“The cut of the hand the toxin got into my arm, the airborne exposure of the palytoxin that traveled all through the house got me and everybody else sick,” Arellano said.
Because he didn't think the coral was alive, Arellano didn't use gloves. While he doesn't blame the seller, he advises others to use caution.
“Study up with the fish stores. They're in business for a reason,” he said. “They know what they're doing.”
Arellano and his kids haven't been able to go home since they were released from the hospital. They need to get rid of the fish tank, but haven't been able to because of his health.
He hasn't been able to work because of this. To help with the medical bills that are piling up, he did set up a GoFundMe page.