RIP steve irwin

[bigGdelta]

just found out from an aussie friend that steve irwin was killed by a stingray

 

[WhiteKiboko]

i thought this was another reoocurrance of the same urban legend of him dying every couple of months.... but... if this is a hoax, it has good agents...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a4L4NuwpEE3E&refer=australia

http://www.canada.com/topics/entert...=2fa659e4-3b92-4f25-967b-6e66d4273f4b&k=98762

http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=18897

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2572539

he mannerisms may have been mildly annonying but he certainly did mean well.....

 

[chrono_war01]

It's all over the News Channels online, I just found out when our a teacher told us during lunch.

 

[nanoteuthis]

OMG.... is it really true? I too thought it was a hoax, but then I saw it posted as a headline on CNN. I've always been a great fan of the Croc Hunter, and this feels almost unreal.... similar to when I heard the news about John Lennon's assassination. What a horrible, horrible tragedy -- I can only guess how poor Terri and little Bindi must feel (I assume the little boy is too young to understand, perhaps mercifully). May God rest his sweet soul.... he brought so much joy to so many sentient beings, human and otherwise. Ciao my beloved Steve -- I will miss you with all my heart.

 

[monty]

As you say, the sources certainly seem credible. It sounds, er, fishy, though... This is pretty atypical for a stingray injury, but it's not impossible. Most stingay injuries occur when someone steps on a ray that's hiding under the sand, and it whips the stinger up and typically gets the diver in the leg. If a diver were swim/crawling along the bottom, I suppose a chest strike would be possible, and of course, he may have been playing with the animal or something. Stingray venom is somewhat nasty, but it doesn't frequently cause fatalities... It does sometimes have cardiac effects, though, so I imagine that this might have been a significant envenomation near the heart that was enough to cause heart failure. The book I'm looking at also mentions that some species can get to be 12 feet by 6 feet, so I expect if it was one of those, the venom dose might be a lot bigger than "typical." It's certainly sad news, in any case...

 

[WhiteKiboko]

according to CNN, it was in the chest...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/australia.irwin/index.html

while it wouldn't be immediate, infection is also a risk with stingray wounds.... ask a coworker of mine....

 

[PSLee]

Truly sad... =(

 

[Colin]

Not happy with the terminology being used by the media, 'stingray attacks' just do not happen. He must have been buggering about with it as usual...

He had been playing Russian Roulette with animals for long enough, it was only a matter of time

 

[monty]

according to CNN, it was in the chest...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/04/australia.irwin/index.html

while it wouldn't be immediate, infection is also a risk with stingray wounds.... ask a coworker of mine....

From all the stuff I read, it sounds much more immediate than that... from this article:

Mr Irwin had a puncture wound to the left side of his chest and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

this expert seems to more or less agree with my book that it's pretty atypical for a stingray injury...

I suppose it's also possible he was allergic to the venom, or that the chest trauma itself (possibly combined with being underwater) was the cause of the death, so the venom wasn't really the issue.

But yeah, secondary bacterial infection is frequently more of a problem from stingray stings than the venom... I'm really shocked, though, since most diving first aid books don't treat stingray stings as an immediate life-threatening situation... the book I'm looking at emphasizes cleaning the wound more than anything else, although it does say that the patient should be monitored for systemic effects. But mostly, flush with cold liquid, irrigate and clean out the wound, then heat treat the wound to neutralize the venom, and maybe use a light tourniquet. Although it lists "death" as a possible, er, complication, it doesn't offer any suggestion to counter it: "Fatalities have been reported secondary to intra-abdominal and thoracic trauma" sounds like it applies here...

 

[WhiteKiboko]

we've pulled up roughtail stingrays that more or less have a stiletto on their tail.... upsize that if it was something like a smooth stingray and add in less than safe behavior (being above it, etc) and i can see how it would be more than possible....

 

[monty]

we've pulled up roughtail stingrays that more or less have a stiletto on their tail.... upsize that if it was something like a smooth stingray and add in less than safe behavior (being above it, etc) and i can see how it would be more than possible....

Yeah, even without the venom, that could do all sorts of damage. I wonder if we'll ever find out if death resulted from trauma or from venom... Certainly, a stiletto whipped around like that could have just punctured the aorta or something, venom notwithstanding. Anyway, sad to see him gone, although I suppose this is appropriate for someone who made his living demonstrating high-risk behavior with dangerous animals.

 

[erich orser]

I remember footage from late in her life where Leni Reifenstahl was filming an underwater documentary in the Indian Ocean, and she and her dive partner were swimming right next to a masssive stingray along the bottom - the thing had to be as big as a king-sized bed. They were treating it with kid gloves however, so it didn't seem to mind them around. A simple whip into somebody's chest from a ray that size could indeed prove fatal; even if the venom dosage were not the primary culprit, a knife to the heart is a knife to the heart.

RIP Steve Irwin. You were a complete lunatic.

 

[erich orser]

Hmm, my last post was written while Monty's went up. Sorry if it seems a little redundant.

 

[Colin]

Local radio here is actually saying, 'stabbed through the heart'

so either a huge ray or it could have been anaphylactic shock

 

[corw314]

OMG...I just changed channels last night cause he was doing some silly skit about being chased across a golf course by a thousands of pounds croc. What a shame. He may have been annoying at times but his passion for creatures was very alluring and I'm sure drew many in who otherwise would not have been willing to learn about creatures.