khaosworks | Another Stingray Stab - Troy Tempest Wanted For Questioning

Once is chance, twice is coincidence... third time, I think we can assume that the flappy little bastards are organising an invasion...

Boater survives stingray assault
Florida injury parallels attack on `Croc Hunter'
By Brian Haas, Tribune Newspapers: South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Tribune news services contributed to this report
October 20, 2006

FT. LAUDERDALE -- Doctors pulled a 2 1/2-inch stingray barb from the heart of a retired Michigan businessman early Thursday morning, but the 81-year-old man's condition remained perilous.

After five hours of surgery, James Bertakis improved to critical but stable condition, Dr. Eugene Costantini said.

"His heart is functioning well, his lungs are functioning well," Costantini said. "God willing, he'll survive this."

Bertakis was boating on the Intracoastal Waterway in Lighthouse Point on Wednesday afternoon when a 3-foot-wide spotted eagle ray burst from the water and stuck his chest with its barb. He piloted the boat to land and called 911.

Costantini said doctors repaired puncture wounds in Bertakis' heart after the barb entered the left side, pierced the septum separating the two chambers of the heart and then bore through the right side. Doctors saw the barb sticking out of his heart when they began surgery, he said, and pulled it through.

"My father's got a way to go. We do believe in the power of prayer," said his son, Jim Bertakis. "He's a fighter and he's gonna get through it."

The elder Bertakis, who is divorced, moved to Florida several years ago and previously lived in the Grosse Pointes, where much of his family lives today. He is the father of four and has eight grandchildren.

The stingray attack parallels the fatal assault on "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin last month. The 44-year-old TV personality was killed after a stingray barb entered his heart while he was filming off Australia's north coast.

Costantini said that in 20 years, he has never pulled a stingray barb from a man's heart. If marine biology experts are right, he's unlikely to do it again.

Spotted eagle rays grow to more than 8 feet and weigh up to 500 pounds, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. They feed on a variety of mollusks, crustaceans and fish using their shovel-shaped snouts to find prey along the ocean floor.

Robert Cowen, professor and chairman of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami, said those rays are common in South Florida but rarely swim near humans.

He said stingrays only use their barbs if touched or harassed. A stingray barb can also contain toxins that can irritate wounds but aren't fatal.

Costantini said the toxins irritating Bertakis' wounds abated once the barb was removed.