Officials: Woman dies after stingray strikes her

[Suzie]

Officials: Woman dies after stingray strikes her


MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A woman sunbathing on a boat died after a stingray leaped from the water off the Florida Keys on Thursday and struck her, officials said.
<!--startclickprintexclude--> <!----><!--===========IMAGE============-->http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/US/03/20/stingray/art.stingray.wfor.jpg<!--===========/IMAGE===========--><!--===========CAPTION==========-->The dead stingray lies on the deck of a boat in Florida.<!--===========/CAPTION=========-->


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<!--endclickprintexclude--> "It's just as freakish of an accident as I have heard," said Jorge Pino of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "The chances of this occurring are so remote that most of us are completely astonished that this happened."
He said it was not clear whether the 55-year-old Michigan woman died from the blow to her head, from the ray's barb piercing her or from her fall backward.
The accident happened off the coast of Marathon Key, in the Florida Keys (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/florida_keys) about an hour's drive south of Miami. (http://topics.cnn.com/topics/miami) The woman, who was with her husband and children, was taken to the Mariner Hospital in Tavernier, where she was pronounced dead.
Pino said he had seen stingrays leap into the air, but added, "it's very rare for them to collide with objects."
MORE HERE (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/20/stingray/index.html?section=cnn_latest)

When it's your time to go, you are gonna go.

[DesertFox]

Embarrassing way to go.

[PrezLeefun]

Scary way to go. That woman may have been dead before she even processed everything that was happening.

[Suzie]

I remember quite a while back there was a story about a guy walking down the street with a coffee mug in his hand and tripped and fell. The cup shattered puncturing a major artery and he died before he could get help.

I think I am going to tell my family if anything like this happens to me ... make something up that sounds better.

[Kathekon]

Scary.

I used to catch small rays as a kid in Florida in the canals in Miami. They are very heavy and very strong. I learned about the tails with some leg bruises trying to horse one out of the water instead of using a net. A big one coming out of the water must have been terrifying. Just awful.