A New Zealand fisherman is lucky to be alive after the barb of a stingray severed his artery.
Gavin Scoles, 43, was in excruciating pain and lost almost a quarter of his blood but is recovering in Auckland Hospital after surgery to clean the wound.
Mr Scoles was fishing off Mercury Island yesterday with two others on his boat when a stingray became tangled in a net.
Mr Scoles was holding the net between his legs, trying to shake the stingray free, when he was struck. The barb from the stingray pierced his leg.
Mr Scoles pulled out the spike and the crew applied a tourniquet and called emergency services.
The Westpac rescue helicopter winched a paramedic to the boat who said the blood loss would have been less if the spike had not been removed.
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Full Version: Fisherman survives stingray attack
QUOTE (Owlscrying @ Oct 24 2007, 10:27 PM) 
A New Zealand fisherman is lucky to be alive after the barb of a stingray severed his artery.
Gavin Scoles, 43, was in excruciating pain and lost almost a quarter of his blood but is recovering in Auckland Hospital after surgery to clean the wound.
Mr Scoles was fishing off Mercury Island yesterday with two others on his boat when a stingray became tangled in a net.
Mr Scoles was holding the net between his legs, trying to shake the stingray free, when he was struck. The barb from the stingray pierced his leg.
Mr Scoles pulled out the spike and the crew applied a tourniquet and called emergency services.
The Westpac rescue helicopter winched a paramedic to the boat who said the blood loss would have been less if the spike had not been removed.
go
Gavin Scoles, 43, was in excruciating pain and lost almost a quarter of his blood but is recovering in Auckland Hospital after surgery to clean the wound.
Mr Scoles was fishing off Mercury Island yesterday with two others on his boat when a stingray became tangled in a net.
Mr Scoles was holding the net between his legs, trying to shake the stingray free, when he was struck. The barb from the stingray pierced his leg.
Mr Scoles pulled out the spike and the crew applied a tourniquet and called emergency services.
The Westpac rescue helicopter winched a paramedic to the boat who said the blood loss would have been less if the spike had not been removed.
go
Painfull. A girl at my work was accidently stabbed by a stingray barb once. It was removed from a stingray while it was tagged and the barb was badly thrown away and landed in the young ladies breast.
i liked his comment at the end.. that was pure gold
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