an interesting conversation

[cement]

Had an interesting phone conversation with a woman who was bitten by an eastern brown snake last year and was calling me to help with a snake in her yard that had scared her daughter while playing outside yesterday.
Its an amazing story of extremely good luck and took me quite a while to get the details because what she was saying just didn't add up.
She was bitten on the leg after treading on a brown, which sent her into a complete panic. After telling her that it is unlikely to be chased by a snake and that they aren't aggressive as much as they are defensive, she spoke to me with authority that yes they are and she had witnessed it first hand and ended up in hospital with a foot that was blown up like a balloon and a horrible grey colour that had her stressing that she would lose the foot. Antivenom was administered and she survived but the story took a bit to come out.
She trod on the snake at her front door, it felt really weird under her foot and as she lifted the foot off in a hurry the snake struck and bit her. She explained that the snake had tried to repeatedly attack her through the flyscreen door, and there was 'liquid' spraying from its mouth.
When i asked about the bite, it was then that she told me the snake was inside the house and she had opened the door to go out. After being bitten she somehow tossed or shoved the snake out the door slamming the door shut. But the snake was now jammed in the door which is why it was attacking the fly screen which she interpreted as trying to get at her.
The animal would have been trapped quite possibly in pain and venom was flying. I asked how she got from there to the hospital , she had been driven in by a friend. I asked if she knew the correct first aid and she replied no. Did she apply first aid? No. was she in a panick and running around? Yes. How the hell did this woman survive.?
I guided her to the first aid page on my website and explained how to apply it and to get some proper bandages and keep them on the fridge and practise applying them with her partner and daughter. She explained how the backyard was (turned out to be perfect habitat for rodents and snakes) and her neighbours had chooks and bird avairies and she had rabbits and they were surrounded by dogs etc, so obviously the snakes were attracted by all sorts of food sources. But I was still puzzled as to how she survived......

She had just gotten home from hospital after having work done on her veins and she was wearing compression stockings. After talking to her about the ordeal it is my belief that the stockings saved her life. Incredibly lucky, I was glad to be able to help her learn the proper first aid.

 

[Darlyn]

Hi there Cement, that very interesting. Those stockings are anti embolism stockings. They fold to a very small size. Would be interesting to look at their inclusion in first aid kits.

 

[BredliFreak]

Well, great story. Too bad someone of... little intelligence survived. I have heard of stories from the ARP where people have "run off" the venom. Good on teaching her the proper first aid, did you tell her how to snake-proof her yard?

A friend of mine said "Snake catching just feeds off people's stupidity (which I'll admit is alright) but what we should be doing is showing them how to live with snakes and charging them to snake-proof (if that is what they wish) their housing area." which is pretty good (before there were snake catchers legally in the ACT, which happened the other day, they used to tell you how to live with reptiles which was great IMO) up to a certain point on the redneck scale.

 

[cement]

Hi Bredlifreak,
Sorry mate but your comments really do show a bad lack of humanity.
"Too bad someone of... little intelligence survived." Your kidding right? Are you one of those new age "herpers" that consider anyone who doesn't have knowledge of reptiles or like reptiles as a lower form of person?

Both you and your friend are the ones that need some serious education. snake proof a housing area?? Feed off peoples stupidity?? ***?

I am a fully licenced builder, carpenter of 30 years, so if you can tell us how to snakeproof a housing area, I'll be sure to pass that on to the "idiots" that call me up because there is a tiger snake in their garage, a brown in their dog kennel, or a python in their roof.
Sounds like you and the people you hang out with need to get out a bit more and expand your horizons, pull your heads out of your ar@#$es and learn that just because you like reptiles, others don't have to.
The greater majority of people in this world have absolutely nothing to do with reptiles because they are too busy doing their own thing, this woman is very successful in her own right, and considering what happened to her, was not above hearing what i had to say or even hateful towards snakes, but is she terrified of them ? Yes. Does she have concern for her young daughter ? Yes.
Grow up tough guy.

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Hi there Cement, that very interesting. Those stockings are anti embolism stockings. They fold to a very small size. Would be interesting to look at their inclusion in first aid kits.

Hi Darlyn, yeah your not wrong, I didn't know what they were called thank you for that, I'm going to look into them though, if they can hold back EB venom like they did there then it's certainly worth taking a look at. They would probably be much quicker to apply too. cheers

 

[BredliFreak]

Sorry if I sounded like an ******** cement, I was not insulting your job or the person. A lot of the people I know are extremely stupid and arrogant (school"mates") and so I get fed up with it easily and use the word stupid way too often. I applaud the woman in surviving because I have close mates who have been snakebit and have held on luckily.

I was referring to other cases where it's a CTS in some corner of backyard or a blue-tongue under a flowerpot and people are overreacting (A few threads on here with that case) and so the stupidity part comes from the fact people can't just let it go on its way, I am not generalising cases.

I know you can't effectively snake-proof an area but keeping grass low and having tight fencing around gaps where snakes can come in are some initiatives.

I never intended this to be an offensive comment, and snake catching is a great job but sometimes I get sick of actual idiots (not the woman) and overreacting ophiodiophobes that I group it all under one thing.

Take a chill pill. When I grow up around self-centred Aholish idiots I absorbed a bit

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It's probably easy to say because I'm in a small state

 

[Virides]

I can say since using the bandages myself with regards to the stroke, that I talked with the doctors about what their purpose is for.

Apparently if you press too hard it's bad, and if it's too light, it does nothing. So these bandages are the correct tightness to achieve the effect required. That effect greatly reduces blood from pooling which occurs at the surface of the skin. So in the case of clots for stroke (which are the same as clotting for any other reason), these stockings/garments either stop or greatly slow any progression of clots. I also take Aspirin daily which thins my blood, I might have to take this for life, so not too worried if I have to.

So if bitten on the foot while they are being worn, it would suggest that it would stop either propagation of the venom or the clotting it creates. I can personally say that during summer times they are a bit uncomfortable and I haven't worn them where it truly gets hot to really know. They are certainly a lot faster to apply equal pressure to all surfaces. They come in various sizes and the nurse did some measurements to determine what size, but they did just come in small, medium, large and extra large. So there isn't an exact science to sizing.

 

[5hane]

Interesting story. the old chased by a snake gimmick... the closest ive ever seen that comes close to being mistaken by a snake 'chasing' was when I stood between an eb's hiding spot and it coming towards me to get into the hide, it had no choice as it was an open space with no cover. I believe this sort of incedence could be where these stories have originated.

 

[cement]

Thanks Viridis, I was wondering about sizes.
All the best for your recovery too.
BTW she was bitten through the stocking just above the ankle, there was venom on the stocking.