Stingray leaves tourist with 40 stitches

CHRIS HILLOCK

RESTING UP: Stingray survivor Matt Brazeau shows the 8cm wound to his rescuers Craig Walker, holding eight-month-old daughter Wakaiwa, and Kylie Rogers-Walker.

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A Canadian tourist needed surgery after the barb of a huge stingray drove through his thigh in waist-deep surf near Waitara this week.

Matt Brazeau, 36, stood on the ray after he tipped out of a kayak just north of the Waiongona River and is sporting 40 stitches after surgery at Taranaki Base Hospital.

"I was reaching for the kayak and felt this unbelievable pain through my leg," the restaurant-bar owner from Fernie, British Columbia, said.

"It was as though something had bit me but with electrical impulses. It was really fast, in and out within a second. There was no movement, no action in the water except for me jumping back into the kayak. It had to be a stingray."

When he saw the wounds he started yelling to his friends on shore. The barb entered just above the right knee and came out the other side, halfway up the thigh.

"I could see the blood in the water from where we were," Kylie Rogers-Walker said. She used her cellphone to hail an ambulance while husband, Craig, also a Canadian, headed to his mate.

"Blood was pumping out so I used Craig's belt to stem the flow. It wasn't a tourniquet, just enough pressure to stop the blood until help arrived," said Mr Brazeau.

Surgeons gave him an epidural and he could hear them talking as they worked.

"There were a few oohs and aahs and `gee he was lucky'. Apparently it missed the main artery by a millimetre."

His doctors researched stingrays on the internet to find out what to look for. One surgeon told him it was only the second he had dealt with in 20 years. The first was a small hand puncture.

"Injuries from stingrays are common, apparently, but the wounds are normally small. That's why we think this one was quite large because of the size of the holes and the length the barb had to be to go through my thigh at that angle."

There did not appear to be any damage to muscle or tendons so scar tissue should take care of the hole through his thigh in time.

Did he ever think of the fate of famous Australian crocodile hunter Steve Irwin who died from a stingray barb through the heart just over three years ago?

"Ironically I visited his centre when I was in Australia a few weeks ago. I didn't think much about him when I was hit but I have since.

"It hasn't put me off New Zealand. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least we can see our predators, bears and cougars, coming in Canada."

Mr Brazeau who is staying with Kylie's parents, Graeme and Helen Rogers, at Brixton, will continue his six-month holiday once he has recovered.

"I had six weeks in Australia, two in London, plan two or three months in New Zealand and will then head for Mexico or wherever the wind takes me."

He is already back on his feet and expects to be discharged tomorrow.

Department of Conservation marine ranger Callum Lilley said stingrays were dangerous if disturbed. "They are normally very placid. If they are stood on or harassed they will lash out. It's their only form of defence," he said.

Recreational fishermen are more likely to come in contact with them and commercial operator Ian "Curly" Brown, 46, said his best advice was not to handle them if possible.

"They have two breathing holes near their eyes and depending on size you can pick them up that way," he said. "But you need to know what you are doing. It's best just to walk away or cut your line and cut your loses. "We catch them all the time but they have no commercial value so we return them to the sea. Orcas eat them. The older ones know how to eat them and avoid the barb."

He was unaware of any increase in numbers and expected stingray to be like other species in that they moved around."You will find a lot close in to shore and it is common to see them when you snorkel."

- © Fairfax NZ News