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The tragic recent death of popular Australian wildlife celebrity Steve Irwin--who was killed by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef--has focused our attention on stingrays and whether anyone has been killed before by one in New Zealand waters.
Like Steve Irwin, this person was killed after being struck in the chest by the barb of a stingray.
An Unusual Bathing Fatality
By J. B. Liggins
This report was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal 1939, Volume 38, Pages 27-29.
While drowning is a common accident in New Zealand, we are fortunate in that attacks from denizens of the sea are few and far between. Shark tragedies such as are experienced in Australia are uncommon.
An unusual fatality occurred in the Hauraki Gulf, ten miles from Thames, on a recent Sunday. A girl of 18 was bathing with her fiancé. There was a heavy off-shore wind blowing, making very smooth sea conditions in the shallow water. It was dead low water at the time--4 p.m. She was wading in under three feet of water close to the shore. Suddenly she called out for help and the man with her rushed to her aid. She collapsed immediately and was carried ashore. A passing motor van was requisitioned to take her to Thames. It was reported that she was breathing when placed in the van but stopped soon afterwards.
I saw her on her arrival at Thames. She was then dead. The Coroner ordered a post mortem examination which I carried out that evening, and I think my findings are of sufficient interest to record; first because of the unusual nature of the injuries, and secondly because of the possible medico-legal complications.
When I examined her after the accident I found her to be a well-developed female about twenty years...