Flying dolphin hits Mansfield woman
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — Mansfield resident Barbara Howard was briefly hospitalized Thursday after being hit by a dolphin that jumped into her boat just before 11 a.m. near New Smyrna Beach.
Howard was treated and released from the Bert Fish Medical Center after a dolphin estimated to be 8 feet long and about 400 pounds jumped out of the water and into the boat. She was cruising with her husband Norman, their daughter and her boyfriend on the Intracoastal River in New Smyrna Beach.
The trio managed to push the dolphin off of Barbara and into the water.
“Monty (Henderson, of Edgewater, Fla.) back here, he ran around, and I’m underneath it pushing on it, and he comes around and he pretty much handles it on his own,” Norman told Central Florida News 13. “And I’m just kicking at it with my feet and finally pushed it into the water. We tried to get my wife up. She couldn’t get up."
Norman said he was struck several times by the dolphin's tail, but only received a few scrapes and bruises.
Early testing
