A woman trying to enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the ocean in Florida was stung by a venomous stingray whose spines came inches from piercing her lung.
Kristie Cataffo-O’Brien, of Tampa, and her husband visited Bahia Beach in Ruskin on Tuesday for a bite to eat before swimming in the water.
While resting in knee-deep water, he suddenly felt a stinger sting his back, he told WFLA.
“I felt something sting me immediately. I think it was like a jellyfish maybe or something, but it was really, really painful,” Cataffo-O’Brien told the outlet. “I started to stand up, and that’s when [her husband] was like, ‘No, don’t move at all, there’s a stingray and it’s on you.'”
Her husband tried to hold her back and the stingray steadied herself as it thrashed about – painfully digging the barbs deeper into her body.
The thorn dug deep into Cataffo-Obrien’s back, missing his lung by mere inches.
Cataffo-Obrien and her husband were relaxing in the water when she was stung by a stingray.
“The stingray moves and rolls and whenever there is a wave, or anything that moves, I can feel the barb pointing at my back,” he said.
The couple called 911, but said it took 45 minutes to arrive. He was rushed to hospital where the thorn was surgically removed.
The poisonous spike missed his lung by just three centimeters, he said.
Cataffo-O’Brien is now recovering and taking medication to combat the poison and any possible infection.
Kristie Cataffo-O’Brien is taking medication to combat stingray venom.
Barb was surgically removed at an area hospital.
“We’re quite dependent on marine life,” he admitted.. “This is their territory, it’s not ours. I lived in Florida for a long time. You never think something like that can happen, and I’m still surprised.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
