Today show star Taylor Haynes has spoken out about the health complications she still suffers nearly two months after a crab crushed her finger live on air.
The weather presenter, 23, was taking viewers on a tour of the new Sydney Fish Markets on April 3 when she stopped at a tank filled with live crustaceans and held a crab which grabbed her finger with its huge pincer.
Taylor told Stellar’s Something To Talk About podcast that she is undergoing rehab to fully restore feeling in her finger.
‘I have a thing called a neuroma. Because my finger was severely crushed by the crab, it has crushed all the nerves. I’ve lost feeling and sensation. I’m doing rehab every week to get movement back into it, and feeling and memory,’ she said.
‘I’m seeing a hand surgeon next week to chat further on how we manage this, whether it will take six to 12 months, or we bite the [bullet] and get an operation to reconstruct the nerves.’
She added that while she appeared to maintain her composure during the live cross, she was actually panicking and worried about losing her finger.
Today show star Taylor Haynes has spoken out about the ongoing health complications after a crab crushed her finger live on-air
The weather presenter, 23, was taking viewers on a tour of the Sydney Fish Markets in Glebe when she stopped at a tank filled with live crustaceans
‘I just screamed and said, “Please, I don’t want to lose a finger”. It still shakes me talking about it,’ Taylor said.
She added that the animal handler was unable to free her finger by hand so her cameraman had to use large tongs to release the crab’s grip.
‘We were getting everything to try to separate those claws. My cameraman went running and found these big tongs that were 30cm long that you [use to] pull crabs out of the tank. That finally separated the crab from my finger,’ she said.
Taylor finished by saying that she often received messages from viewers joking that she got off ‘lightly’ because the crab didn’t sever her finger.
‘Some of them were fingerless and said, “I didn’t even have half the size of crab as yours that took three of my fingers off.” I’m extremely lucky,’ Taylor reflected.
During the segment last month, a worker emerged with a giant crab and placed it in her arms, prompting Taylor to bend down and place a kiss on its head.
Unfortunately things quickly went pear shaped when the crab retaliated by grabbing her finger with its huge pincer.
Taylor recoiled in pain, almost dropping the crab in the process.
Taylor told Stellar’s Something To Talk About podcast that she is currently undergoing rehab to fully restore feeling in her finger
‘Ahh! It’s got my finger! He’s got my finger… oh god!’ she screamed, sending Today’s hosts into hysterics.
Taylor was still struggling to remove her finger from the crab’s grasp when the segment awkwardly ended.
Co-host Alison Piotrowski later revealed Taylor was recovering well after the unfortunate encounter.
‘She’s doing fine, thank goodness, and we will catch up with her later on in the program,’ she confirmed.
Taylor made another appearance later in the program with her hand submerged in a cup of cold water.
‘I’m still in shock. It did take a good while (to remove my hand from the crab),’ she said, adding: ‘I will be going to hospital after this.’
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