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Reflecting on his brush with a stingray's barb, Max Wakefield knows he had a lucky escape.
"A couple of inches either way, I'd have been in a lot of trouble," he said yesterday.
"I actually thought it was curtains anyway when I got to the surface."
The 46-year-old flooring contractor was diving with friends at remote Porangahau in southern Hawke's Bay on Thursday morning when a one-metre stingray stung him in the belly.
The ray's barb, covered in hundreds of tiny spears, pierced the thick fabric of his weight belt and a 14-millimetre wetsuit to plunge 5.5 centimetres into his flesh - not 0.5 cm as previously reported.
Doctors told him it narrowly missed vital organs, piercing only fatty tissue and causing temporary paralysis in his legs and then his arms.
After he was stung, Mr Wakefield managed to get to the surface and signal he was in trouble. After 20 minutes of being unable to move, he then endured excruciating pain, which by yesterday had waned but was still providing a strong reminder of the event.
"It's like a really bad tummy ache," he said, gingerly touching his stomach. "It's still a bit tender and sore."
His wife, Debbie, said she and the couple's three young sons were just very glad her partner of 13 years was "still around".
"We've won Lotto really," she said, gently cuddling him. "I'm not going to bother buying a ticket. We feel really lucky."
She said their sons had different reactions to learning their dad was hurt. The oldest, Barlow, 10, was "very concerned", Finn, 6, asked his mum to write down the details for him to take to school, and 5-year-old Ben was "taking it all in his stride".
