I was up late and saw the breaking news about Steve Irwin's unfortunate death. Irwin had a mixed public image, but his expertise and message were not those of anthropomorphising bear lover or hiker who got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Steve may have been 'pushing the envelope' and paid the ultimate price. Details are still few. But this is a sad reminder that anyone who participates in this beautifull world must pair that with a modicum of caution and planning.G'Day Steve, hope your on a even grander walkabout.

Steve Irwin? Isn't that the austrailian guy that handles crocodiles and such? His wife's name is Terry? Are we talking about the same man here, Chris? Blimey!

Steve was filming on the Great Barrier reef and was stung near his heart by a stingray.

Jeez, I'm sorry to hear that.
Buy he died while doing what he loved, I guess <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

It's a bit Ironic. I've read that he's only the second known victem in Australia, and that a stinray rather tries to escape than to go into a confrontation. So it's not the most dangerous species wich he encountered..

I allways enjoyed his shows and it's too bad this has happened. It must also be verry tough for his family

Great bloke,
RIP steve.

I always expected the Silly Sod to be eaten by a Croc. He was one of those blokes who always knew exactly what he was doing. Even when it looked bloody dangerious to the rest of us.
Spare a thought for his missus and the kids.

Sad news indeed...

Sure, he pushed things, but always delivered a message of respect for animals and let his audience know that they should be given space.

"The Crocodile Hunter" did a wonderful thing bringing the idea of conservation to a whole new generation in a new way, one that kept them interested. He probably did the same for some people of older generations as well.

Godspeed Mr. Irwin, and best wishes to his wife and kids!

Truly ironic way to go...according to some online news, it's actually very unlikely that someone will die from a stingray encounter...they say it's because the barb pierced his heart.

To quote from "Highlander": I have something to say...it's better to burn out, than to fade away!

Truly sad he was taken from us so soon, but as others have said, he died doing what he loved. When it's my time to go, may I be so fortunate.

A toast to you Steve...a truly great spirit!

I was suprised when I heard about it. I always figured he'd be eaten.

My 5 year old nephew is a big fan of the croc hunter, He will be heart broke when he gets the news.

But like many others have said, at least he got to go doing what he loved. I hope that I am that lucky when it's my time to go home

He'll truly be missed. To just think he never actually got bit by a poisonous snake and this happens. But as long as he died happy in his khakis doing what he loved.

Apparently Steve was passing overhead when the stingray attacked, no deliberate contact as some have suggested. The huge barb alone seems to have inflicted a fatal puncture wound to the heart. I've been stung by our tiny rays along the California Coast. Within seconds the affected limb experiences excrutiating pain travelling up to the groin. The fastest relief, and used by our lifeguards is HOT WATER to break down the invenomated proteins.

It seems they have it on tape. Dont know if we will ever see it though. I bet we do eventually.

Very sad news indeed.

STEVE Irwin made the fatal decision to interrupt his normal filming schedule yesterday morning when a large group of stingrays captured his attention.

http://tinyurl.com/ea6ja

R.I.P. Steve Irwin

I heard on the news last night that he pulled the multi-pointed barb out of his heart himself.....the instinctive thing all of us have in us to do. This led to bleeding in the sac around the heart (not up on my anatomy terminology) leading to heart failure because of pressure, etc? They said they tried CPR also.

Anybody that knows something about this and the medical field want to elaborate? I don't have a clue, just relaying what I remember they said. An autopsy is in the works, they also said.

Stingray barbs are stiff cartilagenous weapons with multiple barbs and a single long groove. The venom runs down this groove. Pulling one out causes additional tissue trauma. That much venom around the pulmonary sac would likely have caused a massive heart attack within minutes. The family wants the tape made public. The 'news' services are building stingrays into Great White Sharks. When JAWS came out, I had to disperse a frenzied group of people killing a beached pilot whale <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. I imagine this will take some pressure off killer bears and survival threads about the best handgun. Steve was about education. What can we learn from this?

That life will kill you in unexpected ways.

This is sort of like a guy who makes his living on a tight-rope and a trapeze getting himself killed tripping over a crack in a sidewalk.

Seriously, swimming with a bunch of sting rays is probably one of the safest things that he has ever done on his show. I always figured that an angry croc or a venomous snake would get him. But to be done in by a creature that is usually considered to be docile is one of those things that you probably can't plan for.

He will be missed.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/05/irwin.death/index.html

The pericardium.

When you've got a foreign-object sticking in you, leave it there!! (exept when in the airways).
Remove it, and there's a large possibility that it will cause a large hemorage (???) leading to death.
In Steve's example, CPR couldn't help him anymore. If what Simon say's is true, he just blead out.

The details are still a bit sketchy on it Jim. Plus, it is very instinctive to pull something out or to get away from the pain source. If it was instinct that did it, it was probably because he knew that it was venomous and was trying to minimize the delivery of the fish venom - he was no dummy. I'll wait to see what the autopsy and video show the coroner. So far I've not heard of him bleeding out. The initial report is that he went into cardiac arrest within a minute of being stung.

As I understand it, there is a rule with regard to anything with a sting that a states that: The closer to the equator you are, the more venomous/potent the sting.

Don't know if thats 100% accurate, but I suspect that it's close enough.

My sincerest sympathy to Steve, his family, and the people of Australia. It is the rare individual, indeed, who can inspire us all as Steve did.

They referred to it as a "large" stingray, which can be six feet (2 meters) across and weigh over 200 lbs (90 kg). No one is going to leave the barb of something that size in his chest, even if it wasn't venomous. Besides, the 'ray itself may have other ideas.

Sue

I went to the Austrailian Survival Forum (AusSurvivalist.com) to see what they were saying. Last evening there were only 6 posts on this, now there are 19, and a surprising number of them are very negative about the Croc Man ("Must have been a slow news day" is the briefest of them). Apparently he was not liked as well in his homeland as he was here. I was not really one of his greatest fans, but "must have been a slow new day" seems pretty cold, even to me...

He was human, like us all. He had his good point's, and his bad. Just like any mortal.
He was successful. They ain't. And only a Coward speaks such ill of the dead.

Well said...

all I've got to say is it's a shame to lose such a person. my best wishes to the family

It will be interesting to see what exactly the immediate cause of death was. If he pulled the stinger from his heart the cause of death might be written as,
a. Penetrating trauma to myocardium due to (or as a consequence of):
b. Stingray barb
Here the physiologic mechanism of death might be exsanguination or tamponade.

If the barb didn't go into heart, maybe,
a. Sudden cardiac death due to (or as a consequence of):
b. Stingray envenomation to chest wall
Here the physiologic mechanism of death might be arrhythmia...

Of course they will write the cause of death differently from what I speculate above.

In the late 80's a 12 year old boy died from chest injury. And in 1945 the first known death in Australia due to stingray occured but I don't know the circumstances.

I heard on the news Irwin's father is turning down a state funeral because Steve wanted to be remembered as a "common bloke." Also I heard they are going to destroy the video tape.

It really is tragic knowing Steve is gone. He was a loved and respected fellow Australian. Unfortunately I do'nt believe he was appreciated as much as he deserved, now he is gone we are now becoming aware of how much he was loved by so many people here and abroad. We will miss him.

Reading that site, I found out why he is not liked as much over there... He was big in promoting the gun ban/confiscation they had over there, that just about eliminated all of the peoples guns.
That made a lot of them VERY bitter about him.

I saw that also. But then, reading other posts on that forum, I saw people talking about ordering such and such a firearm on their so and so permit. I was under the impression that all private firearm ownership in Australia was banned, has that changed I wonder???

What do they do in Oz if dingoes or other dogs are after their livestock, spit at them?

Sue

Australia had a rather sweeping firearm and knife act. While it decreed many firearms and knives illegal, many do remain. I think Steve supported it after seeing the downside of abusive use.I know a lot of aussies, count them as friends. But sometimes I think I'm talking to values from the 1950s. And then again, Germaine Greer, the australian feminist wrote a particularly nasty attack on Steve. I think a translation of my reaction would be ' smack the stupid sheila.' <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Someone just sent me this, kind of cute...

"Somewhere in heaven, a very groggy, very confused angel has just woken up and is trying to figure out why a boisterous Australian man is poking it with a stick."

Feeding the croc while carrying the baby was not too bright. Unexpected things happen, even to those who think that they know what they are doing. Fortunately, he didn't confuse which hand had the kid & which had the chicken.

No ... thats not it. his stance on guns has nothing to do with it. Down here we have different tastes in TV than you guys in the U.S.
Steve's style in front of the camera is too in your face for most Aussie's. I'm not a big fan of his TV work, but I am of his other work.
He found fame in the US on the Discovery network/channel before he was well known across Australia.
He was very popular with the kids here, but most adults found him too much.
I support and agree with his conservation work he was doing, and I like his drive and determination. I dont like the way the media attacked him when he was feeding a croc with his son. I think it was a media sensation over a bad camera angle.
He was very tallented and knowledgable with lots of drive and it is sad that he is gone.

FYI:
As to our gun laws, our government banned and limited quite a few of our guns, but they are not all illegal. They are however harder to own, and more of a hassle to keep on owning. There are quite a few restrictions like, Semi Auto is now banned, there is only 5 round max allowed in the mag etc.
They got rid of all the registered firearms that didnot meet the new laws, but most of the unregistered firearms didnt get touched.
They did this to protect us or so they said, and now that nobody can defend themselves and some types of crime has gone up, they want to introduce more restrictions and expand the ban to include other firearms that wasnt included in the previous ban.
So there are still some guns here and not completely banned like some of you think.
PS this was for you info, so dont turn this thread into a gun/political debate.

Sorry to have given my own comment on Steve in a post of my own elsewhere, -I just missed this thread, -and the meaning of "Crikey", -here. I had thot he said "Croc" or something. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]Chris Kavanaugh[/email]