Stingray victim improving after freak stabbing

Oct 20, 2006, 16:24 GMT

Washington/Miami - Doctors for an 81-year-old man stung by a stingray said Friday that they expected him to survive even though he remained in critical condition.

James Bertakis was injured in a freak accident on a waterway near Lighthouse Point, Florida Wednesday when a spotted eagle stingray threw itself into and his granddaughter's boat and drove its venomous barb into his chest.

The case generated international attention because of its similarity to the incident that killed noted Australian naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Doctor Eugene Costantini told NBC Friday that despite being in critical condition, Bertakis was a 'very tough gentleman' and that he was expected to survive.

Constantini displayed the barb that surgeons removed - an eight centimeter point with serrated edges.

Bertakis suffered a collapsed lung in the incident and underwent heart surgery to remove the barb.

'He's a lucky man,' Dr Eugene Costantini, a cardiovascular surgeon at Broward General Medical Centre said after the operation. 'As long as we don't have any problems ... he'll survive this.'

Bertakis may have been trying to throw the stingray off the boat when it stung him, according to Lieutenant Mike Sullivan, a firefighter first called to the scene, cited in the Miami Herald.