A prominent snake catcher says a ‘stupid theory’ could have killed a Queensland man bitten by a deadly eastern brown last week.
Snake catcher William Pledger said he didn’t realise he had been bitten by the snake while visiting a home in Traveston, near Gympie, until it was nearly too late.
The highly venomous snake had sheltered under a raised garden bed, and Mr Pledger said he made a small mistake while capturing the creature with a shovel, leading to him being bitten on the hand.
Snake catcher William Pledger said he didn’t realise he had been bitten by the snake while visiting a home in Traveston, near Gympie, until it was nearly too late
He said he didn’t feel the bite ‘at all’ and thought it may have been only a ‘dry bite’.
Melbourne snake catcher Raymond Hoser – known as the ‘Snake Man’ – told news.com.au ‘dry bites’ are as ‘rare as rockinghorse s**t’.
‘Dozens of snake handlers have died thinking they were dry bites. These people getting bitten thinking there’s no pain but they just collapse and die,’ he said.
‘Dry bites aren’t common. I want to know who came up with the bulls**t over dry bites.’
Mr Hoser said Queensland was notorious for snake catchers getting bitten.
‘Queensland is the worst. There’s handlers teaching other handlers who have no expertise whatsoever and they go out and catch snakes with metal tongs. It’s not good,’ he said.
The highly venomous snake had sheltered under a raised garden bed, and Mr Pledger said he made a small mistake while capturing the creature with a shovel, leading to him being bitten on the hand
Mr Pledger only took himself to hospital when his flatmate convinced him to. He had not been suffering from any pain or symptoms.
An initial test showed no poison in his system, but a second test discovered a potentially fatal cocktail of neurotoxins, myotoxins, and coagulants moving around Mr Pledger’s bloodstream.
He was then administered anti-venom when his kidneys started to shut down.
The man, who has been working as a snake catcher for 15 years, believes without the treatment he would not have survived.
‘It’s good to get a wake-up call every now and again, but I don’t want one like this for a few more years,’ he said.
An initial test showed no poison in his system, but a second test discovered a potentially fatal cocktail of neurotoxins, myotoxins, and coagulants moving around Mr Pledger’s bloodstream