Posted on 09/04/2006 6:50:04 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
FATALLY injured by a stingray, Steve Irwin pulled its barb out of his chest before losing consciousness, dramatic footage of his last moments reveals.
Friend John Stainton said the footage of the stingray attack which took the life of the Crocodile Hunter on the Great Barrier Reef yesterday was "shocking".
Mr Irwin, 44, died after the stingray barb punctured his chest while snorkelling off Port Douglas, in far north Queensland, yesterday.
A cameraman captured the incident during filming for Irwin's new project with daughter Bindi, eight, that was to debut in the United States next year.
"I did see the footage and it's shocking," Mr Stainton said today in Cairns.
"It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die ... and it's terrible."
Mr Stainton, also a producer and director of Irwin's popular television shows, said the footage showed Mr Irwin pulling the barb out of his chest before losing consciousness.
"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
How did he pull it out? It is recurved it would tear a big wound. Maybe he should not have pulled it out.
I felt the same way I did with Steve when I heard of the death of Jimmy Stewart.
Oh my gosh! I had the exact same thoughts today when I was painting. .. Thinking that Jimmy Stewart was the only celebrity that when he died, I cried.
I am deeply saddened by this man's death. Unfortunately, Mr. Irwin was what I consider to be a danger junkie. He was very very good at what he did. However, sooner or later, danger wins, and it only has to win once. May he rest in peace.
They are nowhere near as important to Americans as Steve Irwin was to Australia.
It was particularly sad for his daughter who was with him and, of course the rest of his family.
When there is a penetrating wound, removing it except at a hospital is the worst thing anyone can do.
I thought it was a ray, not an eel.
FATALLY injured by a stingray, Steve Irwin pulled its barb out of his chest before losing consciousness...
Okay, just a thought...maybe he should have left it in?
I don't we quite realized how important he was to us until yesterday. Isn't it always the way?
Yes, it is.
"Sorry but this is BIG Down here..."
I'm sure it's REALLY BIG down there, no need to apologize because he touched so many lives around the world it's big news everywhere.
I dare say that outside of the last popes passing, Steve's death has shocked as many as did Princess Diana's untimely death.
I dont know how many people think that when its happening to them at that very second. Its always easy to look at it when you arent the one with the barb in your chest
What do you think you would do with a 10 inch barb in your chest? A barb laced with excruciatingly painful neurotoxin?
Tough call - these barbs are loaded with toxins - so do you pull it out and risk bleeding to death, or leave it in and let it pump deadly toxin into your heart? Either way, your natural instinct is going to rip it out, probably as good a strategy as any in this horrible dilemma. Probably fatal either way.
I just heard on Fox that his family has been offered a state funeral. That means he is really is big there. So very sad, and obviously a freak attack. RIP Steve. You will be missed.
No apologies necessary - the term "icon" gets overused but it fits here. I live in a little town in rural Idaho and I don't know anyone here who doesn't know who Irwin was. I don't think I really want to see him dying and I'm not sure why anyone would.
Marlin Perkins would be loading the camera while the other guy got it.
Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne.
Only ones I ever cried for.
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