Care Worker Stung On The Finger By Scorpion Hidden In Tesco Bananas

A shopper has claimed she was stung by a scorpion which escaped from a packet of bananas she bought from her local Tesco.

Kita Fitton, 20, from Crayford, Kent, said she was making lunches in the care home where she works when she felt a stabbing pain in her finger.

She had just opened a packet of Tesco Organic Fairtrade bananas, which had been ordered online four days previously.

When she reached into the bag to grab a banana, she said she was stung by something and then saw a scorpion fall out of the bag.

She rushed to A&E for treatment but says she no longer has any feeling in her finger.

“When I ripped open the packet and reached in to break two bananas off, it stung the middle finger on my left hand,” she said.

“I’m a brave person, but it was really scary. It felt like a bee sting but at least 40 times worse. The pain was extortionate - it was so painful, I thought I was going to die at one point.

“It’s manageable now but I’m going to go back to hospital if it stays numb like this.”

Ms Fitton works at a residential home for young men with learning difficulties. She was preparing the following day’s lunches when the incident took place last Thursday.

“We’ve been trying to get them making their own but I’m so glad we didn’t that night,” she said. “The scorpion could have even ended up in one of their lunchboxes.

She said that someone from Tesco came to collect the packaging after she complained and offered to refund her the cost of the bananas, which she found “a bit insulting”.

She added: “Imagine if children had come into contact with it, it could have been so much worse.”

The scorpion was killed using her colleague’s Croc shoe and she photographed it and sealed it in a sandwich bag. Her father brought her to hospital after she drove herself home.

“At first, in hospital they thought it was a joke, as no-one gets stung by a scorpion in England,” she said.

Health experts say scorpion stings are mostly harmless, with only 30 of its estimated 1,500 species inflicting potentially deadly stings.

Tesco says it is investigating the incident.

A spokesman said: “We set ourselves the highest standards for the quality of our produce. Our customer service team is investigating this enquiry and will update our customer as soon as possible.”