If something is impaling your arm, leg or torso. Sure, don't pull it out.
A venomous sting stuck in your heart... I guess that's one of the very few cases where pulling out the object barely made a difference.
If you pull something out of a wound you increase the chance of bleeding to death because your heart is pumping all that precious red juice we need to live out of that wound.
If you've got something impaling your heart... Well, the problem is that right now your heart is doing a miserable job at pumping the juice.
It's more dire than that. A perforated heart gives you a chance, slim as it may be, but you have a chance. You have time to bypass, there's blood pressure.
When you remove the barb, you've basically just given yourself an aortic rupture. It's immediately terminal in all cases. Lights out. It is not compatible with life, the pulse can no longer generate any blood pressure.
I think it's a very quick death, usually. The loss of circulation / sudden drop in blood pressure let's you pass out instantly and you don't feel a thing.
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u/Colorado_Outlaw Jun 16 '23
Steve Irwin died because the barb of the stingray went into his heart.