Man dies from snake bite after trying to uncoil it from friend's leg (Mackay)
A man has died after attempting to remove a snake that had coiled around his friend's leg in a tragic accident during school celebrations in northern Queensland.
Queensland Ambulance says his symptoms suggest it was a highly venomous brown snake
This is a tragedy but also, it’s kind of on himself that he died. The friend was bitten too, but survived the encounter and is already out of hospital. But this guy got bit on the chest. While it’s not known what happened then, this quote stands out to me:
"Typically ,what we find is that it's how someone manages their own snake bite, that is the deciding factor, whether people live or die," Dr Zdenek said.
It seems like it’s likely this guy may have exacerbated his condition. Perhaps if he’d laid down and restricted his movement, he might have had a chance.
It also reminds me of what was drilled into me during first aid. Don’t put yourself in danger or when the ambos arrive they’ll have two patients instead of one. It’s literally the first letter in the acronym they teach you, DR SABCD.
Like I feel bad for the guy’s family, but you don’t live in far north Queensland without knowing how to act around snakes. I mean, if you wanna survive that is.
I work in the bush. I'm well familiar with snakebite first aid, snake ID and all of the "Here's what NOT to do" etc.
There is something that nobody likes to talk about regarding snakes in Australia. If you get bitten on a limb and you know what to do, you'll probably be ok.
None of us like to talk about what happens if you get tagged on the torso, arse or head by a brown snake, taipan, rough scaled snake etc. The fact is, you are probably going to die.
Further still, I can follow all the right first aid advice if I am bitten on a limb: Pressure immobilization bandages, lay still, wait for help. If nobody knows exactly where I am, I could be waiting days for help. Again, I'm likely going to die. I do my best to communicate my movements but Australia is a big place, and emergency GPS devices often fail under canopy cover.
This is something that is ALWAYS in the back of my mind. I wear good quality snake gaiters, make a tonne of noise and keep my eyes peeled but when you are walking through thick undergrowth where you can't see the ground there's really not much you can do about it. It will be the one you don't see. Also lots of snakes climb trees, not just treesnakes - this is another thing most of us like to just ignore because otherwise we'd never go out in the field.
Between the plants and the animals it does sometimes feels like this country wants us dead.
emergency GPS devices often fail under canopy cover.
GPS often fails, but a PLB should work. UHF works too (obviously short range, but useful when the PLB has told them roughly where you are but they can't see you yet).
@bandario @princessnorah
Well it kinda does want us dead.
Why was it coiled around the leg? That’s the horrific part, don’t think I could keep my cool in that scenario