Crikeys, Celebrity Animal Taunter Killed by Stingray
Steve Irwin, the man who made mocking crocs famous, was killed yesterday by a giant stingray.
The brave Aussie, known throughout the world as the Crocodile Hunter, was snorkeling near Batt Reef, part of the Great Barrier reef, when the incident occurred. According to CNN.com, Irwin was felled by a stingray barbed that pierced his chest.
“He came over the top of a stingray that was buried in the sand, and the barb came up and hit him in the chest,” said Irwin’s friend and manager.
According to a report on TIME’s website, fellow crew members dragged Irwin from the water and began cardio-pulmonary resuscitation while racing their boat Croc One to meet a rescue
helicopter. Despite rescue efforts, he was pronounced dead at Cairns Base Hospital. Outside the hospital his longtime friend and producer John Stainton said, “He died doing what he loves best, and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, Crocs rule.”
The stingray in this case was most likely a Black Bullray (Dasyatis thetidis), indigenous to those waters and impressive in its size and power. The stingray’s tail has 1 or more barbed stingers and 2 venom-containing grooves that are encased in an integumentary sheath. The tail is thrust into the victim when the stingray feels threatened. Because stingrays often lie on the floor, half-covered by sand, most “spinings” occur in the foot or lower leg, producing a deep jagged laceration from the serrated spine(s).
It is possible that in Irwin’s case the sharp, stiff spine penetrated Irwin’s lungs causing a tension pneumothorax or less likely, caused a penetrating cardiac wound causing intrapericardial hemorrhage. If this turns out to be only a penetrating lung injury, expect to hear some subsequent press about how the Crocodile Hunter could have been saved has they only known. We have all heard, and some of us have even seen, stories of people using straws and pens to release the pressure caused by a hole in the pleural layers, but that is usually reserved for television dramas and ER stories. Just in case the tabloid shows do spew some of their garbage, let us say that it is exceedingly difficult to make the diagnosis of a tension pneumo on the back of a boat speeding for shore, let alone to have enough balls to puncture someone’s lung in such a setting. This was an unfortunate tragedy that happened to a man who took great pride in even greater risks.
It seems unlikely that the venom would have anything to do with Irwin’s death as the events happened so quickly and the toxin is only known to be associated with severe pain rather than hemodynamic collapse or neurologic deterioration, which might also account for such an acute decompensation.
In the vast majority of cases, the sting is nonfatal, but may be associated with pain, infection, swelling, bruising, and bleeding from the local trauma. Recommended treatment is to apply hot water (as hot as the victim can tolerate) to breakdown the heat-sensitive toxin. Plain films are usually acquired to assure that no part of the spine broke off in the wound and debride if necessary. Infections are not uncommon in these wounds and you can check out this personal account of one man’s story that one of our editors found – yeah, they get really into this stuff (Click here to read a personal account of a nonfatal Stingray attack.)
Irwin, only 44, was like the real life version of Crocodile Dundee, often tempting fate by wrestling his favorite reptile to the ground and sticking his head in their mouth. He may have been crazy, but he was not dummy. Irwin was director of the Australia Zoo in Queensland and an avid animal conservationist and teacher and was both respected and love by the animal rights community.
“The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet,” Stainton told reporters in Cairns, according to The Associated Press. “He died doing what he loved best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. He would have said, ‘Crocs Rule!’
“It’s unbelievable, really,” Jack Hanna, the host of “Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventure” and director emeritus of the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo, told CNN. “You think about Steve Irwin and you think of people who are invincible.”
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ chief executive, Mark Townsend, said “His loss will be felt by animal lovers not just in Australia, but all over the world,” and Prime Minister John Howard lamented that his country had lost “a wonderful and colorful son.”
In Other News
Fantasy footballers pay attention! Super Bowl champion quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, will be kept out of his opening game after undergoing an emergency appendectomy last night.
Earlier this year, Roethlisberger, was nearly killed in a motorcycle accident that required multiple surgeries to repair the bones in his face. Luckily, he did not injure his golden arm and returned to complete a full preseason unscathed – until yesterday.
Coach Bill Cowher is not certain how long Roethlisberger will be out following the quarterback’s third operation in 10 months — and second in 2 1/2 months.
