[cojones]

81-year-old man boating on Intracoastal stabbed in chest by stingray

By Sofia V. Santana
sun-sentinel.com
Posted October 18 2006, 4:15 PM EDT


LIGHTHOUSE POINT -- An 81-year-old man is undergoing surgery this afternoon after he was stabbed in the chest by a stingray that leaped onto his boat while he was sailing on the Intracoastal Waterway, according to Lighthouse Point police.

It happened about 1 p.m. Police identified the man as James Bertakis. He is at North Broward Medical Center, but his condition was not immediately available.



LocalLinks

Bertakis and his family members told police that a spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water and onto their 18-foot boat. When Bertakis tried to lift the stingray out of the boat, it hit him in the chest with its poisonous barbed tail.

When rescue workers reached the boat in the 3800 block of Northeast 30th Ave., Bertakis still had the barb lodged in his chest, police said.

The incident comes about 1-1/2 months after Steve Irwin, television's popular Crocodile Hunter, was stabbed in the chest with a poisonous stingray barb while diving with the animals in waters off Australia. He died from the wound after trying to rip the barb from his chest

[alsouthster]

Jumped outta water into boat!.....the stingrays must be pissed off at all the bad PR

[cojones]

That's quit a common thing jumping out of the water here but in your boat isanother story.

[alsouthster]

in your boat and nailing you in the CHEST is another story
coincidence or conspiracy????

[johnnylawless]

Is this a joke, it says he was sailing when it happened then goes on about rescue workers reaching the boat in the 3800 block of Northeast 30th Ave?
WTF?

jeez! the stingray must have taken a cab to the 3800 block,or a corvette maybe? that sounds like its a ways from the water. or did they drive the boat that far ashore?

[smilingjack]

Well what would you
Stay in the middle of the river ?
or try to get to land

[cojones]

copy and pasted : Man remains critical after stingray jumps in his boat and stabs him in heart

By Sofia Santana & Brian Haas
sun-sentinel.com
Posted October 19 2006, 12:30 PM EDT


LIGHTHOUSE POINT -- An 81-year-old resident was in critical condition on Thursday, a day after a spotted eagle stingray jumped onto his boat in the Intracoastal Waterway and stabbed him in the chest, leaving a foot-long barb stuck in his heart, authorities said.

James Bertakis underwent open-heart surgery late Wednesday and early Thursday and doctors were able to remove the barb, which appears to have lodged near or in his heart, by shoving it through the heart, said Dr. Eugene Costantini at Broward General Medical Center. Bertakis also had a partially collapsed lung



Costantini said the heart's contractions pulled the barb in. Doctors were able to pull the barb through his heart and close the wound.

Though Costantini said it is rare to see a puncture wound made by a stingray barb, similar injuries are created by objects like knives. Those objects should not be taken out except in the operating room, he said, because they create holes that will bleed.

``We pulled it through just like a fish hook,'' Costantini said.

Speaking at the news conference, Christ Bertakis said his father is extremely active and that his age is not a good indication of his health. After having knee surgery a month ago he was quickly back riding his bike for miles, his son said.

The accident occurred while Bertakis, a retired developer, was with two of his adult granddaughters on a cruise around 1 p.m. on Wednesday to look at the waterfront mansions along the Intracoastal in Lighthouse Point.

When the stringray landed in the boat, Bertakis tried to push it back in the water, and that's when he was stabbed, relatives said.

The freak occurrence brought to mind the stingray attack that killed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin last month.

Bertakis's case was different from that of Irwin's because the barb stayed in Bertakis' heart and was not pulled out, Costantini said.

The incident left Bertakis' family in disbelief, said one of Bertakis' granddaughters, from her Grosse Pointe, Mich., home Wednesday night, as she described the injury Wednesday night.

"Every time his heart pumps, it's like a razor blade, it just keeps cutting," said Catherine Bertakis.

The stinger also pierced James Bertakis' lung, said son John Bertakis, from his office at the family business in Roseville, Mich. "Initially it seemed all right, but he lost a lot of blood," he said.

Some relatives were standing vigil at the hospital, relaying details back to relatives in Michigan, where the family owns Bertakis Development Inc. James Bertakis in 1972 founded the company, which specializes in manufactured homes and has property in Michigan and Texas

"We're all in a state of shock right now," John Bertakis said. "We hope health and strength are on his side, he's a strong man."

Catherine Bertakis described her grandfather as an athlete who rarely gets sick.

"He lives in this 35-year-old body," she said. "He should live to be 120 years old."

James Bertakis was conscious after the attack and, with the help of his granddaughters, steered the boat back to his Lighthouse Point home in the 3800 block of Northeast 30th Avenue, where one of them called 911.

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 may have migrated. Bertakis suffered a closed chest wound and a collapsed lung.

Firefighters and police found Bertakis with a foot-long barb in the left side of his chest

[mili]

Lesson to be learned: DON'T FUCKING BEND OVER A STINGRAY!

mili

[A-Team]

That's a painfull lesson.