Reporter hospitalised by crab incident now requires surgery

A reporter whose hand was ‘suffocated’ by a crab live on Australian television is contemplating hand surgery as she has ‘lost feeling and sensation’ in her fingers.

On 3 April, Taylor Haynes, 26, came face-to-face with a $2500 crab at the Sydney Fish Market in Glebe while reporting for The Today Show.

During the broadcast, designed to highlight the fish on sale at the market ahead of the Easter weekend, the presenter was asked by the studio team to ‘kiss’ the crustacean.

This led her to reveal that the unhappy aquatic creature had clamped down on her finger and would not let go.

“At the start…everyone here was making a joke out of it, but the crab got my finger,” she explained, adding that the fishmonger got a ‘big metal bar’ to pry the crab off of her.

Taylor Hynes' viral live TV moment has earned her the nickname 'crab girl' (Nine Network)

“I will be going to hospital after this,” Haynes continued at the time. “The pain is real. I’ve got no movement. It’s awful.”

More than a month later, the TV star has appeared on the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About, to confess that she has developed a neuroma.

Massachusetts General Hospital describes a neuroma as a ‘disorganised growth of nerve cells at the site of a nerve injury’.

In the Aussie’s case, the benign growth occurred when the crab clamped down on her fingers.

“I’ve lost feeling and sensation,” the weather presenter told host Sarrah Le Marquand.

“I’m doing rehab every week to get movement back into it, and feeling and memory.

“I’m seeing a hand surgeon next week to chat further on how we manage this, whether it’s naturally and will take six to 12 months, or we bite the [bullet] and get an operation to reconstruct the nerves.”

(Nine Network)

She added: “I don’t think everyone knows the severity of it, how badly it got me.”

Haynes, who has come to be known as ‘crab girl’ online, said that while she remained calm during the broadcast, it was a different story when the cameras stopped rolling.

“As soon as I knew the (cameras) were off, I started crying, panicking and collapsed on the floor because I couldn’t move my finger,” she lamented.

“The more attention that crab was getting, the tighter it was munching. I just held it together for as long as I could. It was a crazy experience.”

Haynes reportedly now has other crab attack survivors recounting their story to her when they see her on the street.

She claimed on the Something To Talk About podcast that one person had lost their fingers to a crab not even ‘half the size’ of the one she picked up at the Sydney Fish Market.

Haynes said she stayed calm for the cameras, but that she was freaking out after the broadcast (Nine Network)

“I’m extremely lucky. I’m known as 'the crab girl' everywhere I go: supermarkets, airports, on the streets. It’s such an Aussie thing. It’s hilarious.”

Haynes and The Today Show received backlash on social media from fans following the crab segment.

“The Today Show needs to read the room and the comments, their viewers have compassion for animals and didn't like seeing these poor vulnerable animals in confinement and in danger from cruel greedy people,” said one Instagram user.

A second said: “While you’re treating it as a bit of fun, a 30 year old crab that was clearly terrified and fought for its life when mishandled by this woman doesn’t feel like light hearted entertainment to many of us.

“I hope that in the not too distant future we look back on this moment with contempt, not laughs.”