Australian television presenter Taylor Haynes has provided an update on her recovery one month after a live television incident in which her finger was crushed by a large crab at the Sydney Fish Market.
Ongoing Nerve Damage and Rehab
The Today show weather presenter, now popularly known as "crab girl," was hospitalised in April after the crustacean, valued at $2,500, clamped onto her finger during a live cross. Despite maintaining composure on air, Haynes admitted she panicked as soon as the cameras stopped rolling, fearing she might lose her finger.
"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 told the Stellar podcast, Something To Talk About. "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 recalled screaming, "I thought, I'm losing a finger. I just screamed and screamed and said, 'Please, I don't want to lose a finger.' It still shakes me talking about it."
She described how the crab expert and her crew tried various methods to separate the claws while her finger was "completely crushed" and going numb. "My cameraman went running and found these big tongs that were 30cm long that you use to pull crabs out of the tank and that finally separated the crab from my finger," she said.
One month on, Haynes is still dealing with nerve damage and undergoing rehabilitation. "I have a thing called a neuroma. Because my finger was severely crushed by the crab, it has crushed all the nerves," she explained. "I've lost feeling and sensation. 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. I don't think everyone knows the severity of it, how badly it got me."
Public Recognition and Support
In the days following the incident, Haynes said members of the public recognised her and shared their own injury stories. "I had people come up to me on the road sharing their stories and showing me their hands," she said. "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."
She added, "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 has seen her Instagram following grow to more than 89,000 since joining the breakfast program. She first appeared on television in May 2024 before being asked to become the weather host.
