Homemade gin goes wrong as man pricked by slow-acting ‘poison’ while berry picking | UK | News

A bloke’s bid to make homemade gin went horribly wrong when he was pricked by a slow-acting ‘poison’ while berry picking. Robert Hutton was out enjoying a picnic in August 2024 with his partner when he stumbled upon a blackthorn shrub growing sloe berries.

The 44-year-old decided to start picking some of the fruit to make homemade sloe gin when he was unwittingly pricked by one of the shrub’s thorns. It wasn’t until two months later that the market stall holder began experiencing a tingling in his left hand and fever, followed by a rash that spread up his arm. Robert was admitted to hospital for a week with a suspected spider bite, however his symptoms returned six weeks later and again the following March.

Robert fell ill once again with a tingling sensation and growing rash on his arm in February this year, prompting doctors to operate on his left hand.

After the surgery his doctor asked if he’d been around any sloe berry bushes, which is when he remembered his forest picnic nearly two years prior.

According to medical product supplier First Aid, blackthorn can cause plant thorn arthritis if a thorn penetrates the skin, causing swelling, stiffness, pain and a loss of range of motion.

Small fragments left behind by the thorn can cause inflammation to develop days or weeks after and the arthritis can then become chronic until it receives the appropriate treatment.

Shocked, Robert claims he had no idea that when he’d been pricked by the bush it had left behind a ‘poison’ inside his body for nearly two years. Now he is raising awareness around the importance of wearing gloves while berry picking.

Robert, who lives in New Forest, Hampshire, said: “It literally just started with tingling in my hands again, then a raised bit in the palm. [After 18 months of symptoms] this time the doctor finally said we’re going to cut it out.

“At that point, they said it could be a sloe berry bush – they hadn’t said it before, but we were actually picking sloes a couple of weeks before my first symptoms in August 2024.

“We were out in the forest for a picnic and just stumbled upon them. We had planned on making gin with them, but didn’t get around to it.

“I remember it was very prickly, but I don’t remember pricking myself. I hadn’t even thought about it until they mentioned it after the operation. It was like a lightbulb moment. The antibiotics should’ve done it, but they didn’t.

“The doctor said even if you get the thorn out, the toxin can stay in the body and then gets surrounded by antibodies and just doesn’t go. It would’ve broken down in the body but just left behind the poison.”

Robert said the blackthorn was the likely cause behind his ongoing symptoms, and underwent an hour-long operation to clean the infected area.

After going under the knife, Robert said he’ll always wear gardening gloves while berry picking after experiencing so many health issues.

Robert said: “I don’t know how it could come back but there’s no guarantee [that it won’t] – I might need another operation again. I was quite shocked at what the cause was. You’d think you hear about it more if it could be this bad.

“Each time they saw me pretty quickly so I knew it was quite serious. That’s the fear that it could’ve turned into sepsis. I was definitely shocked about the effect it had on my health.

“I think I’ll just be buying sloe gin next time. I’ll always be wearing gloves now and would definitely encourage others to wear gloves too.”