Chilling video footage of the wildlife warrior's last moments reveals that he pulled out the 8-inch barb after being speared by the normally placid animal.
"He pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," said his manager, John Stainton, who viewed the heartbreaking footage.
Experts said that while the barb that killed Irwin had toxins that can cause agonizing pain, its sharp, serrated edge does the most harm.
Thus, removing the barb from the heart could cause fatal bleeding and tissue damage.
Bryan Fry, of the Australian Venom Research Unit at Melbourne University, said it would have been better had Irwin left the barb inside because it would have stemmed the bleeding.
"To pull the barb out would have taken a lot of force and could do more damage," Fry said. "The serrations mean it would not slide out like a knife, and pulling it out could have caused more tissue damage."
Dr. Todd Rosengart, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Stony Brook University Medical Center on Long Island, agreed it would have been better not to remove the barb.
"As soon as he pulled the barb out, the hole in his heart opened up. He bled into the heart sac and the blood squeezed the heart to the point where it stopped beating," Rosengart explained.
"Of course, it would have been almost impossible for him to have known that."
Irwin's American-born wife, Terri, yesterday made her first public comment since her husband's death, thanking the staff of his zoo.
"She was very choked up. It was a very frail comment," said spokesman Michael Hornby.
"But she wanted to say to the staff how grateful she was for their support and how much it meant to her."
Irwin, 44, known for exclaiming "Crikey!" as he wrestled with crocs and pythons, died Sunday in the shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef in northern Australia.
He was speared by the stingray while filming a segment for a TV show that was to feature his 8-year-old daughter, Bindi, who was hundreds of miles away, hiking with her mom and brother at the time.
Irwin and his cameraman apparently unnerved the creature and it lashed upward with its tail, striking Irwin in the chest and piercing his heart.
The whole encounter was filmed, and the footage turned over to authorities.
"The cameraman had to shut down. It's a very hard thing to watch because you're actually witnessing somebody die. It's terrible," Stainton said, choking back tears.
Yesterday, Discovery Communications - which airs Irwin's animal shows - said it was not planning to broadcast a tape of the attack.
The footage is now in the hands of the Queensland police, and would be aired only if Irwin's family agrees to it.
Concerns remained that some ghoulish profiteer would try to get hold of the video, which experts said would amount to little more than a snuff film.
"The only remote justification for publicizing this would be accident prevention," said Martin Kaplan of the University of Southern California. "But that argument is a stretch."
Stainton was adamant that the tape never be made public.
"When that tape is finally released, it will never see the light of day. Never. Ever," he told CNN. "I actually saw it, and I don't want to see it again."
Police said it appeared that Irwin, swimming in six feet of water, had just been watching the 3-foot-wide ray.
"There is no evidence that Mr. Irwin was intimidating or threatening the stingray," said Queensland state police Superintendent Mike Keating.
He added that there was nothing suspicious about the death.
As tributes poured in from around the world, Irwin's body was returned home yesterday to Beerwah, a hamlet in southeastern Queensland.
He lived there with Terri, Bindi and son Bob, 2.
The naturalist turned a modest reptile park that his parents opened in Beerwah into Australia Zoo, a wildlife preserve that has become an international tourist attraction.
Fans placed hundreds of bouquets and handwritten notes at a shrine to Irwin at the zoo.
His boundless energy and daredevil antics made him a household name as "The Crocodile Hunter," the star of an Animal Planet TV show viewed by millions.
Australian leaders interrupted a federal Parliament session to eulogize Irwin.
"He was a genuine, one-off, remarkable Australian individual and I am distressed at his death," Prime Minister John Howard said.
Friends said that on Sunday - Father's Day in Australia - Irwin missed a phone call from his family.
Unknown to Irwin, Terri, Bindi and Bob tried to call him on his boat, the Croc One, which was anchored on the Barrier Reef while Irwin was filming the documentary, chillingly called "Ocean's Deadliest."
But Irwin, who had last spoken to his family a week before, never got the call.
"We missed a phone call on the boat because communication on the boat was very patchy," Stainton said.
However, on the afternoon after Irwin's death the next day, Stainton discovered a text message on the naturalist's cellphone from Terri.
The message said simply that "the children send their love, that was all," he said.
Irwin had just spent a month with his kids in Australia's Lakefield National Park catching crocodiles for research.
Stainton said Irwin had captured 32 crocodiles in five weeks and was doing "mind-blowing" research on tracking their movements.
"Steve said to me on the boat, at the end of the Lakefield research trip, as we were leaving to go out for this [documentary], 'John, I've had the best month of my life,' " Stainton said
"I said, 'Gee, that's a big statement, Steve,' and he said, 'No, it's the best month of my life' and that's great."
Animal Planet will "absolutely" continue to air old episodes of Irwin's shows, "Crocodile Hunter" and "Croc Files," and could also air unseen Irwin footage down the road, General Manager Maureen Smith said.
"We obviously have a wealth of material, 10 years worth of Irwin footage, including a lot of stuff that probably never aired," she said.
"We were just gearing up to start a whole new wave of projects with Steve, and the one he was shooting [when he was killed] was the first," she added.
"As time passes, we will approach John Stainton about bringing Steve to life in a new way, and, of course, we'll consult with Terri," she said.
Steve Irwin never saw an animal he did not want to leap upon. Steve Irwin was hitching a ride on the ray when it killed him. Anyone believing this Ozzie bullswaddle is denser than they are and that's pretty dense, kids.
Pretty soon someone will leak the tape to youtube or some other video source and we'll see how Steve was minding his own business when attacked. Yeah right. And too bad old Steve wasn't a devotee of American westerns or he'd have known that pulling out an arrow is worse than leaving it be until medical help arrives.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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