Man dies from snake bite trying to help neighbour

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This man was a friend of mine, extremely sad and terrible loss to our community, makes it even harder now to educate others about snakes and leaving them alone.

Gives me an awful feeling about being an advocate for snakes...
 
This man was a friend of mine, extremely sad and terrible loss to our community, makes it even harder now to educate others about snakes and leaving them alone.

Gives me an awful feeling about being an advocate for snakes...

Sorry for the loss of your friend. But why does this make it harder to educate others about leaving snakes alone? This is a prime example of what happens when you don't leave them alone :(

No need for you to feel bad about being an advocate for snake either.
 
sorry about the loss of your friend herpmad,it does feel bad in discussions as a snake fancier as people look to you for some blame as you advocate these creatures, i suppose you know the story alot better than the newspapers can tell it on what where the circumstances the bite took place.
 
When I was a kid, I kept lots of vens. My father was a doctor so I had access to his Medical Journals, this is the 70's. I remember an article on a study of the cause of death by snake bite. I kep it in a scape book for years and I wish I still had it because I have been referring to it for years. I remember the stats to be something like this..

80% of deaths are caused by shock ie. simply the fear of snakes and then being bitten by one is enough for people to just die.
5 or 6 % die from an allergic reaction to the antivenene
And the remainder die for the actual venom.

This was demonstrated to me very clearly one afternoon. It was a Sunday and my father got a call that someone had been bitten by a snake while gathering wood for a bbq at a local park and needed urgent attention. They had killed the snake and were bringing it up to the surgery. I had to go up to ID it so the right antivenene could be given. The guy came in in a cold sweat, he had his figure wrapped in a bloody rag because they had lacerated the two bite holes quite deeply. His mate followed him in and was in almost the same state as the victim, sweating and trembling with the dead snake drooped over a stick which he carried in. Guess what the snake was? wait for it.... a Scaly foot !! duh, how the hell they found two tooth holes to cut is beyond me but both guys were ready to drop and needed treating for shock and the victim actually needed a stitch or 2 in his cut figure. It was bizarre and I will never forget it.

Moral of the story is.. The power of fear kills..
 
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When the newspaper contacted us we spoke at length about contacting snake catchers, using appropriate first aid, that the venom quantity was around 2mg, not 2ml.......lots of things discussed and not printed. There was also mention of how to prevent snakes in the yard........one of the things we emphasized was to contact a snake catcher and if bitten, dont catch it or kill it, bandage the wound and get medical treatment ASAP

Mate they did actually print this stuff in the Central Qld Newspaper along side the story & first aid on the next page.
I was very impressed.
If I can get Paula to scan the couple of pages onto this site we will do so.
At the end of it all it good to see some warnings & alerts come from it.
I still reckon that first a foremost people should be educated right from the start. IE: schools & shopping centres. CORRECT TREATMENT & EDUCATION.

Cheers
Ian
 
Re snake bite, i did say a bite in a vein or artery is fatal usually, as the venom travells straight to the heart, which happened 3 weeks ago the lady was hit in a vien and had a heart attack in minutes. { gatton qld }The article says nothing about veins, only bites which are usually muscular, or fatty tissue, my statement was related only to veins and arteries
 
I still reckon that first a foremost people should be educated right from the start. IE: schools & shopping centres. CORRECT TREATMENT & EDUCATION.

Cheers
Ian

I think there is also an urgent need for education of our healthcare providors in regards to treatment protocols.
I can tell you from personal experience that the LACK of knowledge in that dept. is frightening and I have no doubt it has led to needless fatalities.
 
As promised, this is the additional information put in the CQ newspaper along side the main story.
I congratulate the CQ news & reptile handlers that supplied the information.

Let us just hope that this unfortunate incedent learns a lesson to others.
I truely believe that this simple education should be taught in schools & shopping centers Australia wide.

Thanks Ian




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Hi guys,
Don't want to ruffle feathers but as a junior ED doc in the NT just wanted to make a couple of comments. Snake bite is usually well managed as it is protocol driven.
There is no need to pretest for anaphylaxis prior to antivenom administration. Anaphylaxis is readily treatable. Manufacturers suggest pretreatment with adrenaline but we don't do it - protocols say not to. Symptomatic envonomation should be treated as promptly as possible.
Shock refers to severe hypotension eg heart not pumping - or a big bleed. Not to being frightened.
Finally intravenous venom administration is an intriguing possibility. Its unlikely and impossible to predict so makes no difference to first aid requirements. From my point of view - may be dead prior to arrival in ED.
Cheers
 
Snake bite is usually well managed as it is protocol driven.

Maybe it is, but I can tell you from personal experience it can be very badly mismanaged to the point of life threatening incompetence.
 
[FONT=&quot]Brown Snake bites are among the most potentially fatal and terribly underestimated in my view. The danger of Brown Snakes is overshadowed by Coastal and Inland taipans, but they are responsible for many more deaths. Until recently researchers were looking for specific cardiotoxins in brown snake venom because of the number of very rapid deaths resulting from cardiac arrest following bites from Pseudonaja spp. Now it is thought that massive intra-vascular clotting may be the cause of death where coronary arteries are blocked by clots, predisposed to occlusion by atherosclerosis. Whatever the case, because of their widespread distribution, ability to live in disturbed or modified habitats and their abundance, combined with this apparent ability to kill very rapidly thus undermining first aid and anti-venom treatment I reckon browns are our most "dangerous" snake. You can probably add to this the highly variable venom yields from individual specimens of P.textilis. with some animals being able to deliver many times the volume of "average" specimens. Just my two bob's worth.[/FONT]
 
Snake bite is usually well managed as it is protocol driven.


Maybe in some hospitals but from what Ive seen over here in the west, doctors and nurses are often stumped when a snake bite victim is wheeled in. A mate of mine copped a bite from a common adder, applied correct first aid and presented at the local hospital. On admittance the nurse attampted to take the pressure bandage off to 'have a look' at the bite. It was only on my mates insistance that she went to check that the hospital actually had adder antivenene in stock. As it turned out they did not and it was another 4 hours before he was transported to a hospital that did. That kind of mismanagement can cost lives in the long run and is inexcusable from medical staff in a country where snake bite is common.

A combination of poor first aid and poor medical management equals more stiffs in the morgue.Its not the only story Ive heard along the same lines from different people, just the most recent.
 
Seems to me that is not expecting too much for your local hospital to have antivenene for local species. Altho I thought there
was a "generic" one ?
 
Correct me if I am wrong but I think antivenom can only be administered if the hospital has an ICU ????
 
Correct me if I am wrong but I think antivenom can only be administered if the hospital has an ICU ????

That is not correct. My local hospital does not have an ICU so the normal procedure is to administer the antivenom and the patient is then transported by ambulance to the nearest ICU about 1 hour away.
I have found antivenom to be of absolutely no use unless it is administered. Doctors who have no clue ringing places like the poisons centre and speaking to others who also have no clue while patients progress from one symptom to the next is a recipe for disaster.
 
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