Lizard Attack Hospitalizes Editor
San Francisco Chronicle Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, the husband of actress Sharon Stone, remained hospitalized Monday, two days after being bitten by a Komodo dragon during a private tour of the Los Angeles Zoo.
The 5-foot-long Indonesian lizard's strong jaws and bacteria-laden teeth crushed Bronstein's big toe and severed tendons in his foot.
Chronicle spokesman Joe Brown said Bronstein told him Monday afternoon that he didn't know when he would be released from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
"We're very grateful for the professional care of the people at the hospital," said Sharon Stone. "And we certainly don't blame the people at the zoo."
Bronstein, who was given antibiotics, is being monitored for infection.
Stone had arranged Saturday's tour as an early Father's Day surprise for Bronstein, who had always wanted to see a Komodo dragon up close.
Bronstein said the zookeeper asked him to remove his white tennis shoes before entering the endangered reptile's compound so it wouldn't mistake them for the white rats it is normally fed.
But the dragon clamped its powerful jaws down on the editor's shoeless foot anyway, then began thrashing about.
Bronstein was able to pry open the lizard's mouth and escape through a small feeding door while the zookeeper distracted it, said Stone, who witnessed the attack from outside the enclosure.
The aggressive lizard, which is known to kill members of its own species, is native only to Komodo Island and a few neighboring islands in Indonesia. It can grow up to 12 feet and weigh 300 pounds.
It is not venomous but is considered poisonous because several strains of septic bacteria are found in its teeth and saliva, said Los Angeles Zoo spokeswoman Lora LaMarca.
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