A Perth man is recovering from a freak injury suffered when a fish impaled his face while he was surfing in Indonesia.
The sharp beak of the garfish wedged in Steven Kezic’s nose after flying out of the water and through the air, narrowly missing his eyes.
Kezic, a carpenter from Como in Perth, thought one of his mates was “having a prank” and throwing seaweed at him.
“I’ve looked around, everyone’s looking at me like really intently,” he said.
“One of the coaches came up to me and said “you better stop, you’ve got a fish in your face’.
He was at a surf school off the Mentawai Islands in Sumatra with eight others when a 30-centimetre-long garfish flew out of the water, its sharp needle nose spearing his face.
The beak broke off, piercing the cartilage of his nose, missing his eyes by mere centimetres.
“I can’t believe I have a fish in my face and I’ve looked down and I’ve seen all the blood,” he said.
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“I felt the slap of the fish and I could see a little bit through my nose.
“It was realistically no pain at the time, I felt the pain when I was on the boat ride and I didn’t feel well after that.
“It was really lucky i didn’t lose my eyesight, because I just turned and the garfish came right across. If it was a fraction higher it would have taken my eyes out.”
Fortunately, one of his fellow surfers was a doctor.
Kyle Kophamel set up a makeshift surgery back on dry land, operating for 45 minutes to remove the fish beak and stitch Kezic’s face up.
“The wound itself had literally entered one side of his nose and come out the other” he said.
“Personally I’ve never had anyone rock up to my emergency department with a fish stuck in their face.”
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