Don't be silly

[nuthn2do]

3 o'clock news - 35 yo Man bitten by eastern brown and told at the hospital "don't be silly your just hyperventilating". They removed the bandages and told him to breath into a paper bag. Suprisingly, 10 minutes later they were trying to revive him from heart failure.
I hope it wasn't anywhere near here :shock:

 

[Dicco]

That's just plain stupidity.

 

[Fuscus]

Its snake bite season
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1217901.htm

Note with brown snakes, they have small short fangs so a bite can look very insignificant. Don't fall for it - See a quack ASAP.

 

[Guest]

What the!!!!

If that was me i would be looking forward to a nice golden handshake and a world holiday care of the hospital!!

Idiots!!

 

[Ricko]

yeah a nice hawiian holiday, as hospitals always settle out of court they dont like there reputation being taneted

 

[Sdaji]

Grrr... they do that sort of thing all the time! My bandage was removed by the 'experts' who assured me they knew what they were doing, and after protesting for a while I (for some reason, perhaps venom induced) decided to trust them... shortly before losing the ability to move... Complete morons! They then replaced my bandage with one of their own, apparently they only wanted to take mine off because they wanted to put their own one there, they didn't trust mine or something, despite it having held the venom in place for the past couple of hours.... I could go on and on about their incompetance... I remember one point at which I would probably have hit one of the doctors in the face if I'd had the ability to move. It's quite strange having your life in the hands of these people, but then again, if you don't like it, don't get bitten

 

[Fuscus]

Paraphased from the CSL handbook : Do not remove the pressure bange without appropiate medical care available including anti-venom.

Another good idea is to mark the area of the bite over the bandage. That way the doctor can cut open a small section in order to get samples.

 

[Ricko]

hey sdaji if you dont mind me asking what bit you an adder?

 

[bigguy]

Adders do not normally paralise you as Sdaji described. That sounds more like a Brown with high neurotoxins. When I have had bandages removed from adder bites, the first symptoms are nausea, followed by blurry vision and so on.

 

[Ricko]

ahh ok i hope i never experience this. what was your worst case of a venomous snake bite bob. (fully understand if you do not wish to go down this path)

 

[bigguy]

Tiger snake, 12 years old.

 

[Fuscus]

12 yo tiger snake or 12 yo Bigguy ?

 

[bigguy]

Fuscus, we were interchangable

 

[Fuscus]

Fuscus, we were interchangable

LOL but its good you're still with us

 

[nuthn2do]

The full story
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/12/1097406574987.html?oneclick=true

login = infowantstobefree
password = pass

 

[BROWNS]

I remember when i was about 14 or 15 and a few of my mates and i were getting drunk down on the banks of the Proserpine river and as we were staggering back to the picture theatre we saw a small snake and my mate went to pick it up and just as i said leave it he got bitten and there were 2 clear bite marks so we staggered on up to the theatre and on the way was the ambulance station ,so i took my mate in there and wearily explained what happened showed the hand with the bite marks etc.The guys from the ambulance obviously thought we were clowning around and sent us on our way without doing anything.Idiots!!!!

Luckily nothing happened and i have no idea what sort of snake it was or what it looked like as we were pretty drunk but just as well it was obviously not venemous or it may have been and not envenomated ,who knows?

 

[peterescue]

It goes to show if you are bitten by a venemous snake the bandage is all that stands between you and the door. Most emergency doctors have had no experience with snake bite. The fact that they didnt have the everything at the ready when they removed the bandage shows this to be so in this case. Its lucky Brian Barnes didnt die. There is a course happening in the Campbelltown area this weekend so I hope supplies are up to any emergency.

 

[Fuscus]

Makes you think about keeping hots outside their natural range. A number of people down here have fierce snakes, if hospitals have inadequate anti-venom for local species this raises the bar greatly for non-local bites.
And as for hot exotics ...

 

[bigguy]

Fuscus, you would probably find there would only be 2 places that stocked Taipan antivenom. That would be Adelaide Zoo and Peter M's Venom Supplies. I would be surprised if any where else stocked it at all in SA.

 

[womas4me]

I was reading that if bitten by an inland taipan the amount of anti-venom required to keep you alive will mean you can't ever have it again. Is this correct?