Hey Kintaro, I knew you couldn't stay away long

Welcome back.
Steve would actually have lived if the paramedics hadn't been braindead or if he would have had enough sense to leave the spike in there, especially with a deep would like that to the heart. Him removing the spike almost doomed him. The paramedics not suctioning the blood putting pressure on his heart doomed him for good.
I think the only way you can really die in such ways is for everything to go wrong ... which (in accordance with Murphy's Law) is likely to happen.