If you've been fishing long enough, odds are you're well-familiar with the inevitable banter between buddies over who has caught the bigger fish. The trout or catfish undoubtedly get bigger and bigger with each retelling, but the conversation stays good-natured (if, perhaps, not entirely truthful).
One such argument went belly up in a big way recently in Thailand, as an argument between two anglers ended with one getting a harpoon to the head. It may just be the most bizarre fishing injury we ever heard of.
Sujit Klingtalay was fishing and drinking beers in the Nakhon Ratchasima province of Thailand. "I was fishing with my friend, and we joked about the fish we had caught. I said [that] I had caught bigger fish than him, but he was offended," Klingtalay told Fox News.
The friend was so offended, in fact, that he decided to spear Klingtalay in the back of the head with his harpoon.
You'd think that having a harpoon to the head would be enough to send anyone over the edge into panic, but somehow, Klingtalay kept his cool.
"When the harpoon first hit me, I felt the pain in my head, but I had a cigarette and felt better," he recalled.
With a cigarette fortifying him, Klingtalay was loaded into the back of a pickup truck, and his friends drove him to Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital. Once there, volunteers cut off most of the foot-long harpoon so that doctors could perform surgery.
Doctors were able to remove the harpoon successfully but stressed just how lucky Klingtalay was to be alive. If the harpoon had struck just a little farther to the right, it could have damaged his brain and killed him.
Klingtalay will need to have more exams to determine if the harpoon caused any brain damage. No word on whether the friend was charged with anything or if the two men are still friends after the harpooning.
