First Steve Irwin, and now this. Will the madness ever end?
A stingray jumped into the boat of an 81-year-old Florida man and stabbed him in the chest, leaving its long barb stuck in him, authorities said.
James Bertakis was in critical condition Thursday morning. The man was boating with his grown granddaughter and her friend Wednesday afternoon when the rare attack occurred. The women were able to steer the boat back to Bertakis' home in Lighthouse Point where they called authorities.
"It was a freak accident," said Lighthouse Point acting fire Chief David Donzella. "It's very odd that the thing jumped out of the water and stung him. We still can't believe it."
Bertakis was conscious when paramedics arrived. Surgeons were able to remove some of the barb, but were not able to locate the rest and feared it might have migrated.
"We did not feel the barb in the heart. It may still be in the heart or traveled through a major artery to a different part of the body," said Dr. Ted Carson, a heart surgeon.
The missing piece of the barb now has been located, and he will undergo five hours of surgery, reports Joan Murray of CBS station WFOR-TV.
Bertakis suffered a closed chest wound and collapsed lung.
"At first he was pretty bad off because of that thing in him, but I think he's coming along," his brother-in-law, Ken Strom, said.
The roughly 5-foot wide, 30-pound stingray died on the boat, firefighters said. They kept it in a plastic bag and on ice until Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Officers picked it up, Sullivan said.
"He has a reasonable chance of recovering," said Carson. "It's not guaranteed. It's a very serious, freaky kind of injury. I've never seen anything like this and I don't think many people have."
Ellen Pikitch, a professor of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami, who has been studying stingrays for decades, said the fish are generally docile creatures.
"Something like this is really, really extraordinarily rare," she said. "I've never heard any reports of a stingray attacking a person. Even when they are under duress, they don't usually attack."
"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, 44, died Sept. 4 when a stingray's barb pierced his chest while he was filming a TV show on the Great Barrier Reef.
|
