Please don't bring live snakes to hospital

April 24, 2024 10:41 PM

Venomous snake brought into hospital in lunchbox prompts plea from doctors — "please don't do this." Hospital staff came face-to-face with one of the world's most deadly snakes after a patient brought it to the emergency department in a snap-lock lunch container. Snake catcher Jonas Murphy has relocated several snakes brought into the Bundaberg Hospital. Mr Murphy said the snakes were in plastic containers or bags and posed a big danger if they had escaped. "You are risking a follow-up bite and you're putting everyone around you in danger as well," Mr Murphy said. "Snakes are one of those things that scare a lot of people, we definitely don't want them in the hospital."

Dr Michael said medical staff did not need to see a snake to know how to treat patients.

"We can determine if you need anti-venom and if so, what anti venom you need based on clinical signs, blood tests and also the snake venom detection kits that we keep here at the hospital," he said.

"We're actually not trained to identify snakes, and so it's not helpful.

"It just puts the staff at risk as well as yourself."

posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (43 comments total)

Metafilter - We're actually not trained to identify snakes, and so it's not helpful
posted by Chuffy at 11:26 PM on April 24 [37 favorites]

I do admire people who have the presence of mind to grab a snake and put it in a box after it’s bitten them.
posted by awfurby at 11:44 PM on April 24 [16 favorites]

I’ve had it with these monkey-fighting snakes in this Monday-through-Friday hospital!
posted by aubilenon at 12:04 AM on April 25 [14 favorites]

I can still bring in spiders that bit me though, right?
posted by 1xdevnet at 12:55 AM on April 25 [7 favorites]

IANA Herpetologist.
The article did mention the risk of getting a follow-up bite while trying to capture the venomous snake. Snakes can give a dry bite -- the first time -- and deliver a toxic load a short time later.
While the article did prioritize getting the snake bite victim to medical help, you would think a cell phone picture or video could be taken at a distance.
Don't pick up the snake.
posted by TrishaU at 12:56 AM on April 25 [8 favorites]

Hmm, my instinct would also be to bring the snake along for ID. But I live in a country with exactly one type of venomous snake, which is about as dangerous a bee sting.
posted by Harald74 at 2:06 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

Scrolling down, ‘I bet that’s Australia’, oh hi cpbc!
posted by ellieBOA at 2:37 AM on April 25 [13 favorites]

Sorry, this is peak Bundaberg.

My brother lives there and oh boy, let’s just say Bundy is an Experience.
posted by honey-barbara at 3:00 AM on April 25 [12 favorites]

While the article did prioritize getting the snake bite victim to medical help, you would think a cell phone picture or video could be taken at a distance

1. trying to take a photo or a video also increases the risk of a second bite

2. hospital staff can't ID snakes by looking at them, so a photo or a video is also a waste of time (altho at least a photo/video can't wreak havoc in the Emergency Department)

3. hospital staff CAN ID what antivenom is needed by tests
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 3:09 AM on April 25 [12 favorites]

Television has lied to me once again because on the Royal Flying Doctor Service all the medical staff and pilots can all identify Australian snakes on sight.

In the US, I think it is still standard practice to ask folks to take a picture of/describe the snake if possible, but we have fewer suspects, they have limited ranges (a lot of places in the US have no venomous snakes), and they are really distinctive looking. They still would prefer you not bring a copperhead to the ER.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:45 AM on April 25 [10 favorites]

Leave snakes alone is my takeaway.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:06 AM on April 25 [8 favorites]

3. hospital staff CAN ID what antivenom is needed by tests

Hospital staff who can’t ID snakes in a country where deadly creatures are the chief export probably shouldn’t be hospital staff.
posted by dr_dank at 4:24 AM on April 25 [3 favorites]

I forgot to say that I used to help care for a copperhead in a nature center where I work that we got because somebody brought it to the ER after it bit them. It lived happily in a large (locked except for feeding) glass tank where we fed it live mice and educated people about them.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:27 AM on April 25 [7 favorites]

Snakes != ticks
posted by unknowncommand at 4:41 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

The line break on that for me was a little shocking at first glance:
…where we fed it live mice and educated people
about them.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 4:53 AM on April 25 [19 favorites]

My brain imagined someone who hadn't been bit by a snake, but brought one in anyway just because it was cool.

"I'm here for my colonoscopy, and, hey, this is Fred."
posted by delfin at 4:53 AM on April 25 [34 favorites]

I seem to remember at one time years ago there was advice given here in the US to bring snakes to the ER after a bite to help with ID; it didn’t make a lot of sense then for all the reasons brought up here. But I did have a friend (an outdoorsy type who was familiar with the 6 venomous species found here) whose then 6 year old son was bitten by a copperhead, circa 2002. He knew what it was but dutifully managed to get it into an empty milk jug and bring it to the ER with him. Public safety asked the surgeon (a colleague of mine) if they should take it outside and kill it and he replied “Hell, if that guy didn’t kill it after it bit his son, I’m sure not going to tell you to kill it. Find someplace safe to let it go.” His son did fine and was able to go home after a couple of days.
posted by TedW at 5:13 AM on April 25 [6 favorites]

You don't need to bring in the truck that hit you. We can determine a treatment plan based on your clinical signs. We're not actually trained to identify trucks.
posted by phooky at 5:21 AM on April 25 [15 favorites]

The real fear is that apparently even quite small snakes can force their way out of locked Sistema containers.
posted by Klipspringer at 5:25 AM on April 25 [3 favorites]

I have to admire the public relations expertise that goes into crafting "We can determine if you need anti-venom and if so, what anti venom you need based on clinical signs, blood tests and also the snake venom detection kits that we keep here at the hospital [...] We're actually not trained to identify snakes, and so it's not helpful [...] It just puts the staff at risk as well as yourself."
Besides the basic requirement of communicating that the actual incident wasn't a safe thing to do, it also emphasises that the patient's presence is the only thing necessary for treatment, and that there's no additional benefit from any information on the snake, thus putting "you would think a cell phone picture or video could be taken at a distance" and any other similar schemes to rest, all without straying from the central point in a way that journalists would be more tempted to cut, and without suggesting that the public plate stuff beans up their nose.

Mostly to rest, anyway.
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 6:07 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]

(I assume that the outline/content of the message was engineered over however many decades of similar incidents)
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 6:09 AM on April 25

"It's okay, doc. Mr. Frizzles is my service badger."
posted by spoobnooble 3D: the spoobening at 6:12 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

"Don't do [obviously stupid things]" is advice human beings never stop needing to hear.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:31 AM on April 25 [7 favorites]

Don't do [obviously stupid things]" is advice human beings never stop needing to hear.

Like this lady
posted by jvbthegolfer at 6:47 AM on April 25 [3 favorites]

Mr Slithers is my emotional support snake. It reminds me of the stark fragility of human life by constantly trying to bite me with deadly venom. This, in turn, allows me to nullify all emotions associated with any of the tiers of Maslow's hierarchy above 'don't die of snake bites.'
posted by kaibutsu at 6:54 AM on April 25 [7 favorites]

This last weekend, a baby brown snake (one of the more deadly Australian snakes) struck twice at my friend Lucy. My (non-medical) advice based on this is always wear Wellington boots while in Australia.
posted by drnick at 7:03 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

We are watching an Australian TV show and last night‘s episode featured someone being bitten by a brown snake. When I saw this post, I immediately thought, must be Australia!

On a similar note, when I saw the headline in jvbthegolfer’s link about the tourist getting mauled by a bear, I assumed Canada. Was surprised it was Romania.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:16 AM on April 25

do admire people who have the presence of mind to grab a snake and put it in a box after it’s bitten them.
posted by awfurby

Well stop, since it's a useless and dangerous thing for them to do.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:16 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

(The other thing is, this could waste dangerous amounts of time at the scene, even if no one else is bitten or the victim is bitten again)
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:31 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

A sidewinder taught me that I am one of “those” photographers. Fortunately, the lesson was free, as I was right (that time) that it was torpid. These days I check in with common sense first.

https://flickr.com/photos/twalters/52472121886/
posted by doubtfulpalace at 7:54 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

We're actually not trained to identify snakes, and so it's not helpful

Identifying snakes is actually pretty easy. They’re long and skinny and don’t have any feet.
posted by aubilenon at 8:09 AM on April 25 [27 favorites]

I am surprised that someone with a snake bite has the mental and physical wherewithal to frigging CATCH THE SNAKE on top of all of their other problems.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:32 AM on April 25 [5 favorites]

Identifying snakes is actually pretty easy. They’re long and skinny and don’t have any feet.

identifying snake body parts is harder though. is it a head, neck, body, and tail, or head, neck, and tail?

Also I know people who have been bitten by snakes and though the doctors didn't require them to bring the snakes to the ER, they did ask a lot of questions about the type of snake that a person in a fearful state due to being bitten by a snake (generally) cannot answer, so I totally get boxing the sucker up and letting the doctor answer his own questions.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:01 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

They build em differently Down Under.
posted by hairless ape at 9:13 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

It lived happily in a large (locked except for feeding) glass tank where we fed it live mice and educated people about them. I find this reading much more entertaining, delicious-luncheon.
posted by evilDoug at 9:39 AM on April 25 [4 favorites]

> identifying snake body parts is harder though

if a snake wore pants, would it wear them like this 👖 or like this 🧦
posted by Phssthpok at 10:01 AM on April 25 [2 favorites]

well I can confirm that the rattlesnake did not bite my husband until after he picked it up. so that scans.

(luckily a moose has not ever bitten either of my sisters)
posted by supermedusa at 10:01 AM on April 25 [3 favorites]

…where we fed it live mice and educated people

"You're in a graduate program you say?"

"Yep, marine biology, USC. I'm studying the reactivity of cyanobacteria to--"

"Right, doesn't matter, come with me."
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 4:02 PM on April 25 [10 favorites]

I mean yeah, sure, but I know an ER doctor who treats snakebites in the US and the thing is, if it was a native snake, they aren't going to do anything but manage your symptoms. And if you keep snakes, they're going to call the zoo and hope he zoo has has something for whatever Best Pet Reptile you have.

This was the advice when the said ER doctor was in med school, btw. Probably the 70s? I should ask why. Maybe because people are always convinced they've been bitten by a cobra or a Brown Recluse Spider when, no, they have not.

(Keepers of Best Pet Reptiles who aren't idiots show up with the antivenom for their Best Pet Reptile. And this almost never happens because they are not idiots. Except for having very dangerous Best Pet Reptiles as pets.)
posted by Lesser Shrew at 7:08 PM on April 25 [1 favorite]

I sent this story to a friend who is a physician that has worked in ERs. He's a jokester. His response: "If you can bring the snake to the ER, you lived, so it's not that venomous. If you can't bring it in, you died, it is venomous, and we'd like to see it."

-

When I was young our family had a farm in Texas that was just loaded with rattlesnakes. In the center of the property was a concrete cellar (upon which a house had once stood). That cellar was absolutely full of rattlesnakes such that we never set one foot into it. So I learned at an early age to spot rattlesnakes and that he served me well in the subsequent decades. I've seen many of them but never within 10 feet of me. The moral of the story is: if you have kids, buy a farm that has a lot of rattlesnakes.
posted by neuron at 7:21 PM on April 25 [4 favorites]

A Lot of Rattlesnakes is the title of my next album.
posted by Chuffy at 9:54 PM on April 25

well I can confirm that the rattlesnake did not bite my husband until after he picked it up. so that scans.

I’m now imagining your husband sliding up to a rattlesnake a bar and saying “can I buy you a drink?”
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:29 AM on April 26 [2 favorites]

A Lot of Rattlesnakes is the title of my next album.

I just wanted one, but the auction was for the whole lot.
posted by aubilenon at 9:00 AM on April 26 [3 favorites]