Strange Exits: Stringray Leaps Out of Ocean and Kills Woman

from www.telegraph.co.uk posted with vodpod

A woman sunbathing on a boat has died after a stingray leaped from the water, hitting her in the face and knocking her to the deck. The incident, which happened in the Florida Keys, involved a 75lb spotted eagle ray and was described by wildlife experts as a freak accident. Judy Zagorski, 57, of Pigeon, Michigan, was relaxing in the bow of a small fishing pleasure boat going 25 nautical mph when the ray leaped out of the water.

The impact is likely to have killed the woman but it was not immediately clear whether she was also stung by the venomous barb on the ray’s tail, said officials. The boat was being driven by the victim’s father on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key when the creature, which had a wingspan of five to six feet, came out of the sea..

“He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously,” said Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The woman was taken to the Mariner Hospital in Tavernier, where she was pronounced dead. An autopsy will determine an official cause of death. Bobby Dube of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said: “The officer on the scene said she fell and maybe struck her head too. There was a lot of blood on the boat.

“She was just cruising on the boat, thinking they would enjoy a nice day of fun in the sun when something tragic happened.” He said rays leaping out of the water was “natural to them and quite spectacular to watch”. Rays sometimes jump out of the water when they feel threatened and it has been known for rays, who are protected in Florida waters, to mistake the shadow of a fast-moving boat for that of a shark.

Local media reported that the creature’s barb had impaled the woman through the neck. Eagle rays, also called leopard rays or bonnet skates, can have a wingspan of up to 10ft, and, with an 8ft long tail, weigh up to 500lb. They have between two and six short, venomous barbs near the base of their whip-like tails. Lynn Gear, a local wildlife expert, said: “Rays jump to escape a predator, give birth and shake off parasites. They do not attack people.”

This was not the first such incident in Florida. A spotted eagle ray stung James Bertakis, 83, in October 2006. Although the barb entered his heart chamber, he has made an almost full recovery. Steve Irwin, the Australian wildlife expert, died the same year when a stingray’s barb pierced his chest off the Great Barrier Reef. – telegraph

Our Florida strange news correspondent, BC, tipped me to this one and summed it up nicely: The rays are pissed.

Filipinos warned on crucifixions

Health officials in the Philippines have issued a warning to people taking part in Easter crucifixion rituals. They have urged them to get tetanus vaccinations before they flagellate themselves and are nailed to crosses, and to practise good hygiene.On Good Friday dozens of very devout Catholics in the Philippines re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.It is something that has become a huge tourist attraction, although the Church frowns on the practice. Disinfect

The health department has strongly advised penitents to check the condition of the whips they plan to use to lash their backs, the Manila Times newspaper reports.

They want people to have what they call “well-maintained” whips.

In the hot and dusty atmosphere, officials warn, using unhygienic whips to make deep cuts in the body could lead to tetanus and other infections.

And they advise that the nails used to fix people to crosses must be properly disinfected first. Often people soak the nails in alcohol throughout the year.

Every Good Friday, in towns across the Philippines, people atone for sins or give thanks for an answered prayer by re-enacting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Giving thanks

In the northern city of San Fernando alone there will be three separate improvised Golgothas – the biblical name for the hill where Jesus was crucified.

Four people there have pledged to have their feet and hands nailed to wooden crosses, while others will flog themselves while walking barefoot through villages.

Sometimes people repeat the penance year after year, like the fish vendor who will be nailed to the cross for the 15th and last time on Friday to give thanks for his mother’s recovery from tuberculosis.

With long hair and a beard, wearing sandals and a crown of thorns, he is tied with cloth to the cross but also has nails driven through the flesh of his hands and feet, avoiding the bones. – bbc

Self abuse is a form of entertainment for some people.

German surgeons operate on woman’s bowels instead of leg

When it comes to a surgical mistake, this incident may take the cake: A 78-year-old German woman went into the hospital last month to have surgery on her leg. Because of a mixup, Frankenpost reports that she left the Hochfranken-Klinik in Münchberg, Germany, with an artificial anus.The paper says some members of the surgical team have been punished in connection with the series of mistakes that led them to operate on the wrong patient. Prosecutors are said to be looking into the incident. As for the unidentified patient, she still needs knee surgery and plans to file a lawsuit.

By the way, there is such a thing as an “artificial anus.” Shosaburo Abe and Yoshikatsu Abe filed a patent application in 1991.

Here are some of the headlines we came across while researching this posting:
• Bit of a bummer
• Pensioner gets bum’s rush on op
• Leg operation turns into a pain in the A..
• Hey doc, leave my butt alone!
• Leg op woman gets bum deal

The headlines make light of the woman’s misfortune, but medical errors are a real problem in the USA and other countries.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reported that mistakes caused the deaths of between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital patients each year. Last Sunday, CBS News spoke with actor Dennis Quaid about the medication errors that almost killed his newborn twins.

Today, the Mercury News reports that an 87-year-old woman died at a Fremont, Calif., hospital after staff gave her four drugs that had been prescribed for other patients. State officials imposed tough sanctions in that case. In Sacramento, the Bee says another hospital was also fined $25,000 because employees gave a 29-year-old woman the wrong medicine and administered 10 times the prescribed dose of an anti-psychotic drug.

Earlier this week, a Canadian group announced new national guidelines designed to protect patients from medical mistakes.

“Experts say open and timely disclosure will help reduce medical errors in hospitals and are calling for a clear and consistent approach across the country,” The Toronto Star reports. “For example, the guidelines advise hospitals to tell a patient if there was a ‘close call’ involving their care where ongoing safety is concerned. They also advise against using the word ‘error’ in relaying a medical mishap to a patient because usually the harm involves ‘a series of failures.’”

Update at 2:10 p.m. ET: Thanks to reader Northern-voice for pointing us to this story in the Star Tribune, which recounts the experiences of a woman who was left with a cancerous kidney after surgeons removed the wrong one during an operation at Methodist Hospital.

“We feel just profoundly responsible for this,” Dr. Samuel Carlson, an executive with the company that owns the hospital, tells the paper. -usatoday

Police blame ghosts for damage

Romanian cops have closed a vandalism investigation that left local houses in ruins by concluding ghosts were to blame. Families living in Lilieci reported windows broken, bicycles flying through the air, objects moving on tables and candles blown out when there is no wind. When they complained they were being hounded by evil spirits to police they were laughed at. But after officers saw the evidence with their own eyes they filed a report saying that ghosts were to blame. Mircea Hadimbu, 68, who says his house has now been completely wrecked, said: “The windows started to break one by one. I saw two bicycles moving through the air on their own.” His sister Melentina Bocancea, 78, who lives nearby, added: “There were cups flying around the house and candles I lit were blown out as soon as I put a match to them even though there was not a breath of wind in the house.” A police spokesman said: “There were bottles and things flying around. I did not know what to dodge first. We can find nothing to suggest it was anything other than what the people claim.” A priest has been called in to perform exorcisms of houses in the town in the hope that the attacks will finally stop. – ananova

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