How To Treat A Stingray Sting
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Steve Irwin’s name has become synonomous with stingrays since his death on Sept 4, 2006. As you may already know, Steve died in a fatal accident, where a huge stingray flicked its tail and embedded its serrated barb into Steve’s chest, while filming a documentary on the Great Barrier Reef on dangerous marine animals. News reports here.
But understand that stingrays are docile marine animals - they do not attack unless provoked, and such incidents (of provoked stingrays) are very, very rare.
Details about the footage: Experts who saw the video footage (of Steve’s death) said that he did not provoke it. Steve’s manager, who also watched the footage, estimated that the distance between Steve and the angry stingray was about 3 feet. The alleged stingray was 4m long (put 2 adults end-to-end) and 2.5m wide (put 2 children end-to-end), and had a barb the length of 20cm. Yes, that bugger is HUGE.
Details about the rays: Stingray stings are not fatal but are extremely, extremely painful (that it becomes very unbearable). Most of the injuries are to the arms or legs, especially in shallow waters, where the rays come to rest on the bed.
**This is not advice from a medical doctor, and advice from this page should not be taken as a substitute for a doctor’s advice.**
First off, the barb - it is a serrated blade of angled serrations. The barb penetrates the skin easily but is very difficult to remove (it will take extra skin with it). Think of it as those plastic bands used to secure wire bundles - it can move one way easily, but extremely difficult to go against the grain.
Next off, the venom - this poison will cause a pain so great, even a maximum (medical, recommended) dosage of morphine will not make you feel comfortable enough. The only good way to treat the sting is to use hot water.
As the venom is made of proteins, it may be denatured (that’s the biology term for ‘changing its form, so that it does not work as well as before’) at high temperatures. The longer the soak and hotter the water (of course, use the hottest that can be tolerated, don’t scald yourself and worsen the wound), the more venom will be destroyed, and more pain will be eased. You want to get the venom to turn into a gel or jelly form (which is the typical state after being denatured), so that it oozes from the open wound.
When not soaking in the hot water, you should apply hot stuff at the wound to encourage more denaturation of the proteins (and apply bandage as necessary).
Step 1: Expose the sting area
Step 2: First Aid — Soak the area in the hottest tolerable water possible (clean and fresh from the kettle) for at least 1 hour *immediately*.
>> Note: if you experience any vomitting, nausea, fever, chills, head over to the nearest Emergency Room immediately, as you may be suffering from more than just a sting (likely to be an allergic reaction or an overdose of venom)
Step 3: Seek medical attention ASAP (do the first aid first, or you are likely to have you friend pass out from the intense pain) to ensure that the wound is not infected, and the doctor may prescribe some medicine and/or painkillers to help with the pain and venom.
Have you been hurt by animals before? Which animal was it? What did you do for first aid? Share your story with me!
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