Ray leaps into boat, stings man in chest

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – His two adult granddaughters at his side, retired developer James Bertakis took to the Florida Intracoastal Waterway on his boat Wednesday afternoon for a peaceful cruise and to admire the waterfront mansions.

Then a spotted eagle ray rocketed out of the water, landing in the boat and stabbing the 81-year-old in the chest as he tried to push it back in the water, his family said.

The freak occurrence, which brought to mind the stingray attack that killed “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, seriously injured Bertakis.

He had open-heart surgery at Broward General Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale late Wednesday, according to another of Bertakis’ granddaughters, who lives in Grosse Pointe, Mich.

“Every time his heart pumps, it’s like a razor blade, it just keeps cutting,” Catherine Bertakis said, describing the poisonous stingray barb lodged in his chest.

The stinger also pierced James Bertakis’ lung, said son John Bertakis, from his office at the family business in Roseville, Mich. “Initially it seemed all right, but he lost a lot of blood,” he said.

James Bertakis was conscious after the attack and, with the help of his granddaughters, steered the boat back to his Lighthouse Point, Fla., home, where one of them called 911.

Firefighters and police found Bertakis with a foot-long barb in the left side of his chest. The stingray, which was about 5 feet wide, died on the boat, firefighters said.

Carl Luer, senior scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., who studies sharks and rays, said spotted eagle rays often jump completely out of the water, although no one is sure why.

But certainly this ray had no aggressive intentions toward the boat, he said.

“That’s a very unusual accident,” Luer said. “I’ve never heard of an eagle ray jumping into a boat before. But I can tell you it was not trying to jump into the boat. It was a pure accident.”