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Lsdeep |
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Post subject: If a Ray Stings You, Think Before Pulling Out the Barb!
 Posted: Oct 10, 2006 - 12:55 PM
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Site Admin
Joined: Feb 18, 2007
Posts: 125
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Paul Auerbach, M.D., a reknowned expert in hazardous marine animals, has talked to BYM News Reporter Marioan Martin about Steve Irwin's death and overall barb injuries. When asked whether or not Steve Irwin might have lived, if he had not removed the barb, Dr Auerbach said “Yes.”
He went on to explain by adding “We don’t yet know the cause of death, it may have been a heart attack induced by penetration of heart cavities, it may have been that the venom induced a fatal arrhythmia, or it may have been from blood loss, if the barb penetrated the aorta.”...
"However, if we assume that it is correct that the barb penetrated the heart, then Steve effectively had a knife in his heart and the golden rule – if someone is stabbed in the heart – is leave the knife there. Don’t pull it out until the victim is in the Emergency Room, asleep and the chest can be opened to stem any blood flow, when the weapon is removed.”
Dr Auerbach went on to explain that, in layman’s terms, the heart is surrounded by a fibrous lining – the pericardium – which is not quickly distensible. Pulling out the barb from the heart would have allowed blood to flow into the cavity between the pericardium and heart muscle and creating a pressure that would prevent the heart from beating.
“Based on the information that has been made public, including the fact that death apparently took place very soon after Steve pulled the barb out, I would hypothesise that bleeding into the cavity between the pericardium and the heart was the most likely cause of death.” said Dr Auerbach.
“The most important thing to remember,” he added “is that the ocean is like a jungle and stingrays, even those used to humans, are wild animals. A stingray does not attack, it defends and its reflex reaction to feeling threatened is to sting and there are, probably, about 2000 such incidents a year in the United States alone.
So the rule is to avoid any marine creature that can sting, bite or inflict an injury of any kind, in the same way that one would avoid a tiger in the jungle.”
Dr. Auerbach is a Clinical Professor of Surgery in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center; Chair of the Medical Advisory Board for Healthline and Founder of the Wilderness Medical Society. He is the recipient of an Apex Award of Excellence for his book, "A Medical Guide to Hazardous Marine Life," and also received a DAN (Divers Alert Network) America Award.
Dr. Auerbach is also author of the leading outdoor medicine handbook for laypersons, "Medicine for the Outdoors."
He also served as advisor on the "2000 DAN Pocket Guide to First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries" and for the 2000 DAN First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries training program.
Dr. Auerbach also writes the popular "Medicine for the Outdoors" blog on healthline.com, the first search engine built specifically to deliver quality, medically relevant search results with navigation tools to help consumers find, understand and manage health information.
You can read a lengthy article about the ray iincident, which includes a brief medical tutorial on stingrays, adapted from a chapter about hazardous marine animals in the forthcoming fifth edition of "Wilderness Medicine", at: http://www.healthline.com/
Source: BYU News |
_________________
Idealism is what precedes experience - cynicism is what follows.
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