Thirty-nine-year-old Brett Clarke was spearfishing with friend Jim Bigness off Cape Schanck, near Melbourne, when the incident occurred.
The men were finning among rockpools when Bigness’s gun went off. Clarke felt a “huge smack”. As he put his hand down and felt the spear in his chest, “the pain was excruciating”.
During the attempt to regain the shore, things were made worse. "We got washed on to a rock shelf and when we were washing back the spear caught on the rocks and went in further,” Clarke told press.
“I started to get pins and needles and I kept trying not to black out because there was still a lot of work to do to get me back into shore. I forced myself to stay awake and calmed myself down and concentrated on my breathing."
The emergency services were successfully called and Clarke was airlifted to hospital, where the spear was cut and the barb surgically removed.
It had pierced his left lung but had missed his heart and key arteries by a few centimetres.
Related link
Diver survives speargun hit (04/01/2007)
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