Irish schoolboy ‘might never recover’ after flesh scorched with second and third-degree burns by ‘most dangerous plant’

A SCHOOLBOY “might never recover” after a scorching encounter with “Britain’s most dangerous plant” left him with second and third-degree burns. Zach Rogers, eight, was playing near the White Water River in County Down, Northern Ireland , when he touched the hated giant hogweed. The next afternoon, a red mark had developed on his left hand – and by the evening, he had what looked like chicken pox up both arms.

He awoke the next day with blisters over his hands and arms, right up to the elbows, and his parents rushed to get him medical help. Mum Danielle Bloomer-Rogers, 34, said: “He was in a lot of pain as it was now burning. “At this stage we didn't know it was a giant hogweed burn, it just kept growing and spots just kept appearing.

“I then rang my husband, who is a landscape garderner, on FaceTime, and it was only then that we discovered it was possibly a giant hogweed burn. “I rang A&E at Daisy Hill Hospital and explained about the burns. They saw him immediately.

“He has third-degree burns on his left hand and second degree on his right.” Giant hogweed carries a sap that stops the skin protecting itself against the sun’s rays, causing gruesome burns when exposed to natural light. What’s more, it often causes no immediate pain, meaning its victims can continue to burn in the sun heedless of any problem.

And the plant can spread its sap with only a moment’s exposure. Mrs Bloomer-Rogers said: “His injuries got increasingly worse with time as .