Stingray Stabbed into Hand Australian woman gets 16-centimeter spike (5 photos)

In Australia, a 68-year-old woman was snorkeling in a group when she noticed a stingray near her. Her attempt to swim away from the sea creature was unsuccessful.





She tried to swim away, but the fish attacked her from behind and pierced her arm with a spike. Other members of the group immediately pulled the victim out of the water. Blood was gushing from the wound.



"It was excruciating, but it felt like a dog bite. Not that I've ever been bitten by a dog, but I think that's what it felt like," Bennett said of her experience. She thought there should have been teeth marks where the wound was, but instead there was a stingray tail barb.





X-rays showed that the spike had pierced the woman's arm like a dagger: it entered just above her right elbow and exited almost under her armpit, narrowly missing an artery. "Looking back, I feel like I won the lottery," the woman admitted.



The barb was successfully removed, leaving Bennett with only bruises on her arm. The woman admitted that despite her ordeal, she still loves stingrays. "They're usually just shy, quiet, beautiful creatures," she explained.