- Eli Carroll, 30, from Dannevirke, NZ, cheated death when he was stung by a stingray while crayfishing
- Incredibly, it was his third brush with death after being swept out to sea, and his car flipped in a cyclone
- A surgeon said the stingray barb missed his femoral artery by just millimetres
Here he shares his story in his words.
‘Bugger. We should have checked the weather forecast,’ I said to my cousin PJ, then 27, as the skies darkened.
It was August 2022 and we were fishing in kayaks on Wellington Harbour, NZ.
Now, as the wind howled and waves grew higher, we were beginning to regret it.
‘Let’s get back!’ I yelled, as rain began bucketing down.
‘We were being swept out to sea.’
But the waves were three metres high, and we were being swept out to sea. Suddenly, a wave smashed into my kayak, flipping it over. I was tossed into the icy water, tangled in fishing gear.
I managed to right the kayak and clambered back in – only to be thrown out again.
Thankfully, PJ managed to get back in his kayak, and was looking at me anxiously from a distance, powerless to help.
I’m going to drown, I gulped.
Eventually, I got back into the kayak after drifting 10kms out to sea, paddling mainly in circles due to the strong current. After 90 minutes, I finally made it back to shore – as the coastguard arrived. Thankfully PJ was already safely ashore.
‘Thank God you’re alright, mate,’ he said.
‘Let’s go get Macca’s,’ I replied, shivering but relieved to be alive.
Life went on…
I was busy with my building work and being a dad to my kids – Te-Hau, then six, Aria, five, and Krystal, two.
But a few months later, in February 2023, disaster struck again. Cyclone Gabrielle had hit the North Island. I was driving my Ford Ranger when I turned a corner and hit a massive fallen tree on the road. The impact launched my ute into the air – flipping eight times down an embankment, landing upside down in a river.
‘Jeez,’ I gasped, stunned, as water rushed in.
Unbuckling my seatbelt, I kicked out the windscreen and swam to safety – minus one shoe, which I lost in the accident, and my phone… but I’d saved the box of beef jerky I’d just bought!
I walked five kilometres to the nearest house. A neighbour who’s a nurse checked me over, then I rang my uncle Demetrius who came to pick me up.
‘I hoped these things didn’t come in threes!’
‘You’re so lucky,’ he said, and I knew he was right. I’d cheated death twice now.
‘I hope these things don’t come in threes!’ I joked.
‘I’m so glad you’re okay,’ my partner, Kaylene, then 29, said when I called her.
But back home that night, I hugged my kids a little tighter.
In December 2024, I was crayfishing with Kaylene’s dad, Paul, near Aohanga, during a weekend away. We set two craypots and returned at low tide the next day to check them. The water was thigh-high and murky.
In the first pot, we’d caught a cray.
‘And we got three in this one!’ I shouted as I reached the second.
Taking a side step I felt a strange vibration under my feet. I’d stepped on something. Then I felt a tail whip between my legs and I knew I’d been stung by a stingray.
As the water turned from muddy brown to deep red with my blood, I saw the stingray’s barb sticking one centimetre out of my inner right thigh with the rest embedded deep inside.
It’d struck my left thigh, leaving a 10cm laceration, then returning, hit my right thigh, snapping off it’s barb and leaving it embedded.
‘I’ve been hit by a stingray!’ I gasped.
Paul dragged me back to shore, bundling me into the 4×4 buggy.
As warm hot blood gushed from the wound on my left leg, I used my belt as a tourniquet around my thigh. Then I called the farmhouse where we were staying. Kaylene’s sister Marama picked up.
‘I’ve been stung by a stingray – call the Hawke’s Bay helicopter. It can’t land here so tell it to get to the sports ground,’ I said.
I passed out as we raced there. When I came to, I saw all my Aohanga mates there, with blankets and a personal locator beacon, so the chopper would be able to find us.
Kaylene was also there.
‘I was rushed into surgery to remove the 11cm barb.’
‘You’re going to be okay,’ she assured me.
An ambulance arrived and gave me pain relief. Then the chopper landed and airlifted me 25 minutes to Palmerston North Hospital. There I was rushed into surgery to remove the 11cm barb.
‘You were lucky not to bleed to death,’ the surgeon said. ‘The barb missed your femoral artery by millimetres.’
They gave me a tetanus shot and left the wounds open to drain the venom.
I had to wear a special suction machine on my left leg 24/7 to draw the stingray’s toxins out.
Back home the next day, I realised just how lucky I was.
‘Don’t go anywhere, Dad,’ Te-Hau said, always by my side, while the other two kept hugging me.
The following week, I went to visit Hawke’s Bay Rescue with Te-Hau to thank paramedic Heath and pilot Nat for saving my life.
‘This was my first stingray call-out ever,’ Heath said. ‘Outside of Steve Irwin, I’ve never heard of anyone else getting stung like that,’ he added.
‘My family are everything to me.’
I was so grateful to them both.
Wanting to give back to the community, I signed up as a volunteer firefighter.
Eight months on, I still go crayfishing regularly. Only now I do the ‘stingray shuffle’ – sliding my feet through the water so rays know I’m there.
After all, I’ve got good reason to be careful – my beautiful kids, Te-Hau, now eight, Aria, seven, Krystal, four, and another on the way in November!
My family are everything to me.
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