The way this story is written makes it suspect. Anyone from Hawaii that can verify?
http://starbulletin .com/2007/ 11/24/news/ story03.html
[ needlefish stabs swimmer in throat in Hawaii -mg]
Fish goes for the throat
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulle tin.com
HILO » Greg Berry and his wife, Debbie, were
treading water at "Beach 69" in West Hawaii on
Thanksgiving Day when a foot-long needlefish speared Debbie in the neck.
"Beautiful Day. Water all sparkly," Debbie later
wrote in an e-mail. "We were about 50 feet out,
and out of the corner of Greg's eye, he sees a
fish bopping along the top of the water.
"Silvery, about a foot long, known as the aha or
happy fish over here. All of a sudden he runs into my neck.
"What the heck? First it's kinda funny. Then Gb
(Greg) looks at me and all this blood is rushing out."
It happened in a single second, Greg Berry told
the Star-Bulletin. He saw the fish "skipping"
across the water for about 10 feet, hit Debbie in
the neck, pull back and swim away leaving a gush of blood.
At first, Debbie thought a snorkeler bumped her.
The site just south of Hapuna Beach, formally
known as Waialea Bay, was packed with people,
Greg said. No one seemed to notice.
The couple swam to the beach, Debbie still gushing blood.
"One gentleman came up and offered to help," Greg
said. "No, I think we're OK," Greg answered as he
wrapped Debbie's neck in a T-shirt.
Despite the bleeding, Debbie, who is "over 50,"
retained her strength, Greg said.
The couple drove to the emergency room at North
Hawaii Community Hospital, 12 miles uphill in Waimea.
Debbie Berry said in the e-mail, "After a
panicked rush to shore, rush to emergency. Turns
out he went in one side and penetrated all the
way through out the other side with his oh soooo
long snout. (Do fishes have snouts?) Couldn't
squeeze his body through, so wiggled back out the
entry side. Just missed the carotid artery and trachea," she wrote.
"Holy happy fish! So now I look like someone
tried to slit my throat. I got stabbed by a fish. Only in Hawaii," she wrote.
Greg said the entry wound was about an inch long.
There was an inch of undamaged skin. Then there
was another 1-inch gash were the fish tried to exit.
"It looks very scary," he said. He did not know
how many stitches the doctors used during the
hour and a half the couple was at the hospital.
"I'd give them 10 stars for their treatment," he said.
The couple drove home to their fruit and flower
farm near Hakalau on the Hilo side of the island.
They skipped Thanksgiving dinner, which they now plan to have next week.
Debbie's neck is stiff and sore, Greg said. "It
was an amazing experience," he said.
Debbie was lucky in a way. While swimming at
night on July 21, 2005, at Kahana Bay on Oahu,
Tonga "Papio" Loumoli, 19, got hit in the belly
by a 4-foot crocodile needlefish, identified by a
tooth the fish left behind. Loumoli had 45
stitches and spent a week in the Queen's Medical Center.