Hi guys,

Someone mentioned it already in another thread. I was the guy who got stung by a stingray in Altona yesterday.

First of all thanks to all the guys who rescued me, dragged me out of the water, called the ambo and even managed to grab my board! Great job!

Story is that I was in waist deep water and just wanted to swap board with a friend for a test ride. Just when I wanted to get back on the board something hit me on my ankle. The pain kicked in after about 30sec. I briefly raised the ankle above water level, saw a bit of blood and the swelling. Another few seconds on the pain got worse - and stayed like that. I released my kite after my friend got hold of the front tube and swam to the shore. Another guy stopped by, landed his kite and dragged me out of the water with the help of a bypassing runner. I think another kiter called 000. When they finally arrived they gave me three shots and morphine. Didn't change much. In the ambulance on the way to hospital they continued pumping morphine in my system but the pain still came through in waves. Finally in ER - probably after 1.15/30 - they immediately placed the foot in a bucket with hot water. As hot as possible. 30sec later the pain got down to a reasonable level!

Now I'm resting on the sofa. Ankle is swollen up like a pumpkin and I can barely move it in any direction without pain. The actual marks from the stingray are two small, almost square bits. Let's see how long it will take to recover. Up to now I didn't need any painkiller.

Once again to everybody involved thanks so much for all your help!!!

And keep in mind: hot water is he only thing that helps ;)

Cheers,

Peter

Just to add, the hot water trick works for any venom from any sea creature. Something to do with the way the proteins are formed.

Sea venom: Treat with heat
Land venom: Treat with cold

When we used to go surfing and got nasty stings from bluebottles and there was no hot water around, peeing on the sting normally did the trick

did you stand on the ray?

G'Day Mate,
glad to hear you are recovering...I was the guy that helped you limp out of the water.
Very happy to hear that you are ok and happy to have been there to help. You were in a pretty bad way on the shore. Not having seen it happen we all first thought you had been lofted and broken your ankle. Hopefully the stingray is a quicker recovery!

It's also good to hear feedback about hot water. I had heard that about flathead spines, but wasnt sure it applied to stingrays....Not that we had too many sources or hot water on the beach.

Hopefully you make a speedy recovery and we see you back out on the water soon.

cheers
Andrew

Thanks for the update - great to hear you are recovering. But what a bummer! At least you have faired much better that Steve Irwin! (but he copped a sting near his heart snorkelling over one)

Kudos to the crew that helped out too - its great to see kiters looking after each other.

I think I'm kiting elsewhere! Haven't been there for a year or two in any case. There are other places that work in a south easterly.

Im an ambo and have also had the pleasure of having a disagreement with a sting ray.. Hot water ASAP.. but if you can place both feet (or effected areas) into the hot water. People have been known to add more and more hot water for pain relief and have ended up with scald burns to the injury. Having the non affected side in acts as a kind of temperature control..

I tried to look up Sting rays native to Victoria/Altona, not much luck.Anyone got any idea what type of sting ray it could be?

I would like to learn more about them.

I sup across from altona to point cook on the non windy days . And you would be amazed at the amount of rays , and small sharks we see.

salt said...
I tried to look up Sting rays native to Victoria/Altona, not much luck.Anyone got any idea what type of sting ray it could be?

I would like to learn more about them.

Get your snorkel on head down to the Williamstown crystals and you'll see as meany as you can poke a spear at... noting the biggest ones i've seen are near altona boat ramp i was pushed over by one trying to get my fish bag... had a bit of a brown moment then.

(I never use to bother/tried spearing them too much hassle... also when you're fishing there a pest... extremely difficult to bring up and most of the time end up losing your line)

Stingrays
Urchins
Blue Ring Octopus!!!
Sand banks
Dog walkers
Cabrinha flyers
Show Ponies

Sounds like paradise that!!!!

All in a brown pool of e coli soup

Rob S said...
All in a brown pool of e coli soup

Don't worry, e coli cannot survive in the runoff from the refinery.

Booties (and wetsuit) would provide some protection, but may not prevent the barb penetrating and doing damage/causing pain. They can spear it in.

Just booties would only protect feet and ankles - they lash with their tail & barb so could get you on the lower leg or even torso (aka Steve Irwin).

SaltySinus said...
That's a good point PeterC.

I think going forward, I'll avoid Altona ;-)

Good idea spread the word

I was stung by a big one at Rosebud before it was made fashionable by Steve Irwin.

First I felt a whack on my foot and then saw a spiral of blood rising and the villain swimming away. Although to be fair I had just jumped on him!

I could not believe the waves of pain - it was debilitating.

I was taken across the road to the Rosebud hospital where I could not have had worse treatment.

I waited in emergency for 4 hours to see a doctor, in my wet suit and then just a towel as I had no speedos or undies. NO pain relief no hot water. NOTHING.

When I finally saw a doctor he was new to OZ, did not know what a stingray was, nor kitesurfing of even wind surfing. He gave me $150 worth of free drugs and bandages and sent me home with the Barb still in my foot. Over the next 6 weeks my wife (an ex nurse) dug out clear/bone coloured segments of the christmas tree shaped bard.

I tell her the pain was worse than child birth - we differ on that.