Man speared by stingray whilst fishing
Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:20p.m.

Mark Jackson had just waded into the surf with his net when he stepped on a huge stingray - the startled fish speared its barb into his leg.

Mark Jackson: “I knew, it almost knocked me off my feet because I was standing right in the middle of its back, a pretty big stingray.”

As an ambulance officer he is used to treating injuries but not to himself.

Mark was with a friend, also an ambulance officer, so they knew what to do and rushed to the nearest bach they could find.

“The best treatment is to get to a bath and immerse the infected limb in hot water as quickly as possible, it’s an unusual treatment.”

He was then flown to hospital, where doctors operated on three puncture wounds after finding no sign of the ray's barb.

Mark says his stingray attack was nothing like the one that killed STEVE IRWIN in September last year - the Crocodile Hunter was filming a documentary when he startled a stingray and was stabbed in the chest - and Mark is already planning to return to the beach.

But he will probably keep an eye out for stingrays from now on.