Reuters.com

Man critically ill after Florida stingray attack

Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:15pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - An 82-year-old man was in critical condition on Thursday, a day after being lashed by a stingray's whip-like tail while riding in a small boat on an inland waterway just north of Miami.

Fire and rescue officials had initially said James Bertakis was conscious and expected to make a full recovery after the freak accident on Florida Intracoastal Waterway. The spotted eagle stingray leapt onto his boat and stabbed him in the chest, leaving its poisonous stinger or barb embedded there.

But in the incident, which recalled last month's death of TV naturalist Steve Irwin, it turned out that part of the stinger lodged in his heart, and Bertakis underwent about 1-1/2 hours of surgery on Wednesday night to have it removed.

Michelle Cuello, a spokeswoman for Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, said the operation to remove the 2-inch razor-sharp barb went well, but Bertakis remained in critical condition hours later.

Other parts of what local media reports have described as the foot-long (30-cm) barb had been removed earlier on Wednesday from Bertakis' chest.

"There could be other complications," Cuello said. "His recovery is going to be a slow one because of his age, in particular, but we're just waiting to see."

"Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, 44, died when a stingray's stinger punctured his heart off Australia's north coast last month. It was one of only a handful of stingray fatalities on record.

Fire Department officials in Lighthouse Point, Florida, where Bertakis was struck on Wednesday, originally gave his age as 81.