Posted on 09/05/2006 7:36:47 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
THE footage of Steve Irwin's death should be destroyed, his manager and friend John Stainton said today.
"I would never want that tape shown," Stainton told CNN talk show host Larry King.
"It should be destroyed.
"At the moment it is in police custody for evidence. There's a coroner's inquest taking place at the moment.
"When that is finally released it will never see the light of day.
"Never. Ever.
"I actually saw it and I don't want to see it again."
Irwin, 44, died on Monday when stabbed in the chest by a stingray barb while snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and Stainton has said footage of the incident is "terrible".
The footage shows Irwin pulling the barb out of his chest before dying.
While Stainton wants the footage kept under wraps, media experts say it may soon be circulating on the internet.
"The key point is once there's something on film, it's impossible to keep it contained," Paul Levinson, chairman of Fordham University's Department of Communication and Media Studies, said.
Mr Stainton, who broke down several times during the CNN interview, said Irwin's wife, Terri, was struggling with her husband's death.
When King asked a teary Stainton how Terri was doing, Mr Stainton replied: "A lot worse than me".
Mr Stainton told how he travelled with Irwin's body in a caske
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
what would he do, hack it off with a knife? or go to surgery with the whole doggone ray in his chest?
BUMP
Somehow I thought the barb normally breaks off.
Back in my youth, when I worked the streets as a Paramedic, I took a guy to the hospital with a metal fence post in his lest upper chest. We cut it off about 2 feet from where it entered his chest. He walked out of the hosptial about 2 weeks later.
We'll have to remember to thank the apostle John and the precious Marys, etc., for bearing up witnessing the worst.
Witnessing suffering teaches us to cling to what saves us from it, alright. It was John that a few years later got to see the Revelation of his suffering Savior and King. He had some stomach issues, too!
= = = =
Indeed.
And for at least a couple of decades . . . I've had the growing conviction that most believers will have to become so focused on Christ--as the martyrs of old--that beheadings, and the like that we may see walking down the street will have no lasting or even momentary impact on us such that we are distracted from what The Lord has us about at the time.
I'm saying at leas a couple of things.
1. Bloody mayhem will be common place on the streets in at least most of the world's large cities as lawlessness increases to epidemic proportions in these Biblically predicted END TIMES.
2. Christians must focus on Christ to the extent that no amount of bodily, personal risk and danger will hinder us in the slightest from doing and being for Him as He would have at those moments and in those settings.
3. That we realize to the core of our being that our greatest and only safety is IN HIM--and in walking, being IN HIS WILL FOR US momenty by moment, day by day. And, like Paul, that to live for Him is Christ; to die, is gain. [if I don't have it backwards].
4. The generations reared on FRIDAY 13 movies AND reared on really bad parents who DEMANDED SELFISHLY without providing the basics in unconditional love, support, good modeling . . . who generated deep bitterness, hatred and rage in their children by repeatedly provoking them to wrath persistently while not giving them loving discipline routinely . . . such children as adults will likely have far less compunctions about participating in bloody mayhem than any other generation in modern times.
5. I think that because of the above, I have somewhat forced myself to face some of the horrid bloody war on terror stuff as I sometimes forced myself to face some of the horrid suffering in Asia. I have such a . . . tender heart . . . I can cry over someone elses' frown, some hurting soul on the train that I never met. So it's been a big challenge for me to face such suffering and not become hardened to it while learning to cope better with it.
6. The martyrs of the Inquisitions often longed for the torture to continue because the blessedness of Christ's PRESENCE was so real during it. We CAN TRUST THAT HE IS AND WILL BE FAITHFUL to those who Love Him.
7. I want to emphasize again . . . a Believer's challenge is to endure suffering as an Overcomer--with Christ's heart--in empathetic understanding--even vicarious sharing of the suffering--yet without becoming hard hearted.
8. Thinking of the anguish of Steve's kids and wife is currently a hard struggle, for me. Yet, with some protective warnings for them and others declining to see it . . . I can understand and support Steve's insistence that such a video be shown.
9. A major part of his philosphy of life was the raw truth . . . and the raw acceptance of all that happened between animals--aggressor and prey. Life is raw. This is boot camp, not a tea party. We are challenged with death on every hand within and without TO CHOOSE LIFE AND TO CHOOSE HIM--CHRIST JESUS--WHO IS ETERNAL LIFE.
10. I think a major part of Steve's energy that he used so effectively was the kind of addictive rush he seemed to devour from perhaps reveling in the rawness--the unscripted life and death drama of life. It seems to me that he would have been loathe to censor that in any way.
11. I think it's no accident that Steve 'tempted death' so routinely AND at heart was a very faithful--EXALTING--REVELING-IN-LIFE son, husband, father who super relished loving his family and serving them. He even seemed to serve the public with almost as much relish.
12. I'm not trying to be crass here but as Christ said that husband and wife relations were a type of Christ's love for His Body The Church--I think Steve almost made existential love to every living creature and reveled in emotional, existential INTER-COURSE with all those close to him--and, amazingly even through the camera to us fortunate viewers. He SHARED, IMPARTED, IMBUED, INJECTED AND INFECTED THE VIBRANCY OF LIFE with us, into us and certainly more so his family.
13. Maybe that's why so many of us feel something precious has been ripped from us. In risking death so routinely, he imparted much to us vicariously of the preciousness--the vibrant, majestic preciousness of life.
Prayers for his family.
WOW/BUMP/MANY THANKS/PRAISE THE LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND ALL IN THEM
Am humbled and blessed by your kind words. Thx.
The spine/barb does break off. In fact, they sometimes have several growing at one time.
I just read a little item about the dolphins that got stranded after Hurricane Katrina - remember those? There were 6-8 of them that got rounded up and put in a Navy pool over by Biloxi somewhere?
The article mentioned in passing that the "next-to-youngest" one had a sting ray spine stuck in its forehead when they found them all together.
Another article I found told of finding an ancient skeleton with a sting ray spine the length of a human rib, stuck between the skeleton's ribs. It was thought that some Mayans and other Indians used them for daggers - and in some jungle places, they do now use them as darts, dipping them in a worse poison than the venom in the stinger's sheath.
"I can't help but wonder if he would have survived had he left that barb in place . Impaled objects should never be removed outside of an operating room."
That's a point, but isn't there venom on the barb? Wouldn't that prove fatal when introduced directly into the heart muscle?
Good for the manager. The tape should be destroyed. It probably will be, too -- but not before some weasel in the chain of custody dups it, to later sell bootleg copies.
Just watch.
And yet... have we seen the photos of Princess Diana's death in the Mercedes in Paris? I don't think so... all of the public, plus the weight of the monarchy have seen to it that those photos never rise to the surface. This is a good thing, in that the Princess' sons have been protected.
The same shielding should be afforded to the Irwin children.
Chances are quite high that it's been copied already. They were filming with underwater camera equipment. Probably digital, probably HD, potentially film. The chances of the cops/ME/whomever being capable of displaying it are fairly low.
Either can I. He was such a compelling personality. I didn't watch him much because I'm not a snake or croc fan but he had so much zeal and energy and seemed to love life and his family so much. It has to be so difficult for those close to him for him to be taken at such a young age and in such a crazy way. It's so sad.
I agree that it is the family's property and their call on making it public or not, in full or in part. That said, I would imagine that the footage might have scientific value in that this sort of response from a ray is pretty rare, to hear the "experts" on television tell it.
Steve Irwin knew that people watched his shows because of the risks he was taking with the animals he encountered. The ability to kill humans of the animals he highlighted was part of what made him interesting and famous. It was never that people WANTED him to be hurt or killed. It was that he was taking that risk. Note that Irwin wasn't swimming above a starfish or a trout when he died. That would not have sold film.
Good points. Thanks.
"Some sites say it will make you sick, a few that I have found say it can kill someone."
Oh my, I just assumed that the venom had immediately made it a done deal. The possibility that it might have been his removal of the barb that exacerbated an already bad situation, makes me even sadder. Such a tragedy. Thank you for the information.
Actually the photos you mentioned were linked to in post 116 on this thread.
Destroy it before a copy gets onto the internet.
I agree with Mr Stainton, It should never see the light of day.
No, that photo isn't one of Princess Diana. It was debunked years ago.
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