All 16-year-old Sam Kanizay wanted to do was soak his tired legs after a football game.
Strange sea creatures chewed up the legs of an Australian teenager who was just trying to soak his aching feet, his family said.
Sam Kanizay, 16, was feeling sore after a grueling football match when he waded into the water in Brighton over the weekend.
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He felt a “needles-and-pins” sensation in his calves and feet, but figured it was because the water was cold, he told interviewers from his hospital bed.
But when he walked out of the ocean, the teen “saw what I thought was sand covering my ankles and lower calf, so I just shook it off quite violently,” he told APTN.
And then blood started pouring from his legs.
“By the time I walked across the sand … to put my thongs on, I looked down and noticed that I had blood all over my ankles and feet,” the boy said.
Photos show Kanizay was profusely bleeding from his calves down, in a garish downpour that puddled around his feet.
yikes! Australian teen comes out of the ocean pouring blood. attacked by some tiny creatures. maybe sea lice?? https://t.co/VcF4DGPMha
— Peter Krupa ? (@peterkrupa) August 7, 2017
He went home, and called his parents from the front of their house because he didn’t want to track blood inside, he said.
“My dad sort of just gave me this funny stare, and I gave him a stare because we both just had no idea what was [going] on,” he said.
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His dad hosed down his legs, but the bleeding still wouldn’t stop. So off they went to the hospital, where doctors were stumped as to what caused the hundreds of tiny pricks covering his skin.
His dad, Jarrod, went back to the beach armed with raw meat and a net. He placed both in the water and gathered specimens of small, wiggling creatures devouring the red flesh.
Scientists disagreed over the identity of the tiny critters.
A popular theory was Kanizay was attacked by especially hungry sea lice, which are usually parasites of fish.
The teenager was asked if had any advice for beachgoers. “Yeah, maybe don’t go icing your feet there any time soon … 'til they figure out what it was,” he replied.
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