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As you may know, there have been numerous sightings of Snakes at Glenthorne over this past summer. But did you know the following?
Did you know that there are about 3000 bites reported annually in Australia. Of those, there are 300-500 hospitalisations, and sadly, of those 2-3 people will die of that snake bite.
The average time to death is 12 hours. It takes this amount of time for the poison to work
You may be surprised to know that Australian Snakes don't want to bite you. In fact, they would prefer to get well away from humans. It is also rare for the bite of a snake bite to a human will contain poison, what is called a "Dry Bite". Why? Because you are too big for them to eat, and you would take too much of their valuable poison to kill anyway. A "Dry Bite" is a warning to you, to just keep away.
Furthermore, snakes will, in nearly every case, know you are near them well before you know, especailly if you tread heavily when you walk, and not tip-toe. If you do happen to see a snake, then its highly likely that you didn't see the other 9 snakes that might probably be there too.
Even so, you may like to refresh your knowlege of Snake Bite First Aid.
A Basic overview. There are five genus of snakes that will harm us (seriously) Browns, Blacks, Adders, Tigers and Taipans. But, for our purposes you don't need to know which type it is, since if you do need an Anti-Venom, the relatively new Polyvalent Anti-Venom will be effective against all these types of snake venom. Polyvalent is a one shot wonder, stocked in all hospitals, so most hospitals no longer stock specific Antivenins.
All snake venom is made up of huge proteins (like egg white). If a snake does actually inject venom with their bite, the venom will be injected into the muscle, and not into the blood stream. So, if the limb of the bite-site is kept immobiliesd, then the venom will stay there, and it will be slowly, and safely, extracted by the body's lymph system. However, if and when the limb is moved, (ie, by walking) then the lymph fluid (which makes up the bulk of the water in your tissues)) will move toward the blood stream, and the venom goes with it. Lymph fluid becomes blood after moving along the lymph vessels to converge to form one of two large vessels (lymphatic trunks) which are connected to veins at the base of the neck.
So, after being bitten by a snake, the most important thing is to stay still!!! the Venom can’t move if the victim doesn’t move. When Aborigines were ever bitten by a snake, they would immediately, just lie down where they are, for as long as they could, and hoped that someone would come by to look after them with drink and food.
To help immobiles, a technique called Pressure immobilisation bandaging was developed, in the 1980s, to further retard venom movement. It completely stops the venom/lymph transport toward the blood stream. A firm roll bandage is applied directly over the bite site, there is no need, and actually recommened, not to wash the bite area at all.
There are three steps: while keeping the victim still, especailly the limb of the Bite-Site.
Step 1 Do not cut, incise or suck the venom. Do not EVER use a tourniquet. Don’t remove the shirt or pants - just bandage over the top of clothing. Apply the bandage over the bite site, to an area about 10cm above and below the bite.
Step 2: Using another elastic roller bandage, apply a firm wrap from Fingers/toes all the way back to the armpit/groin. The bandage needs to be firm, but not so tight that it causes fingers or toes to turn purple or white. About the tension of a sprain bandage.
Step 3: Splint the limb so the patient can’t walk or bend the limb.
Australian snake venom tend to have 3 main effects in differing degrees.
1) Bleeding - internally and bruising.
2) Muscles paralysed causing difficulty talking, moving & breathing.
3) Pain In some snakes severe muscle pain in the limb, and days later the bite site can break down forming a nasty wound.
It is extremely rare to have an Allergy to snakes, or the anti-venom.
Due to the high likelyhood of Dry Bites, only victims who start to show any of the symptoms above are given antivenom.
Many thanks to Rob Timmings, of Kingston/Robe Health Advisory, and DEW "Snake Awareness Workshop", for the information contained in this article. |
