A student’s face swelled and left her “resembling a Teletubby” and needing a walking stick after she brushed up against Britain's most dangerous plant.
Tina Sabine woke up one morning in 2021 and found she could not move and her right hand had erupted in blisters.
A friend rushed the panicking 28-year-old to Warwick A&E where she claims doctors thought someone had poured acid on her hand, her injuries were so severe.
She was transferred to Birmingham Hospital where a consultant said she had come into contact with giant hogsweed.
The graphic-design stayed in hospital for a month but it was two weeks before she could walk again and had to use a mobility scooter for six months.
Today Tina still has to use a walking stick to get around and cannot use her right hand.
She said: “I went to bed absolutely fine. I woke up and I couldn't physically move. I was in pain, not terrible, just annoying pain.
"I looked at my hand, it blew up and was bright red. It looked like it had been dunked in acid. At the hospital they asked if someone had poured acid on my hand.
"My fingers swelled up, they had to cut off my rings, they're still swollen today.
"I didn't look in the mirror until the hospital and the right side of my face bulged out so much that I looked like a Teletubby.
"I'd been walking the dogs the day before so I think I must have come into contact with it there and then touched my face.
"It was blistering. I was in a lot of pain."
Giant hogweed can cause serious health problems and major irritation to skin as its toxins seep deep into the cells.
The highly invasive plant is found in York, Sheffield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Leeds, Keighley, Skipton, Scarborough, Bradford, Dewsbury, and Yorkshire.
Tina's burns were dressed daily and she was given pain medication.
She says she'd had such a bad reaction to the plant that it caused a blood clot on her spine and walking became agony.
Tina said: "I wasn't really conscious the first few days, they were putting cream on it and making sure I wasn't in pain and waiting to see if I got better.
"I was in hospital for over a month. I still can't use my right hand today. I started feeling better after about two weeks.
"I've been back to the place where I suspect I came into contact with the hogweed and it's still there.
“It's scary to think there are kids out playing and could touch it."
Last year urgent warnings were issued when a four-year-old girl in Bolton suffered severe burns from touching a dangerous wildflower plant called giant hogweed.
The toddler developed severe blisters after coming in contact with the weed while playing in a park and required hospital treatment.
