Girl dies from Cobra bite

[bigred]

I have posted the full story with the news articles, if you are interested. I thought that the story, which happened yesterday abput 50 miles from where I live, would be of interest, especially if you take some of the things BW Smith said in his article about whether people are ready to own hots or not.
She was nitten in the calf by a Cape Cobra and died within an hour. Her father had applied a tourniquet, but her lungs and heart gave in just before she arrived at hospital.
It is spring in South Africa, and all the Cobras, puff adders, mambas and Af rocks are waking up.
Not a great time to go walking in the veld ...
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[bensnacks]

Tell me red, is this a rare or common occurence inS.A.???
We are entering the same seasons as yourself , here it is rare for someone
to perish due to snake bite .

B.W. in the story you have posted (rattler bite on hand), the fella, sorry his name has eluded me,
said he attempted to suck the venom from the bite.In the U.S. is this still a recommended
first-aid technique in the case of snake bite???
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[eddie]

Not really, Ben..
Check out this article to learn all about it!

Venomous snake bite treatment.
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[bensnacks]

Interesting reading Ed.!!
What makes up the greater part of the venom of
Nth. American snakes, neuro, or haemotoxins...or other??

_________________
L4L
"Peeple of zee wurl, relax!"-sailor the parrot.

[eddie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font class="pn-sub">Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT class="pn-sub"><BLOCKQUOTE> What makes up the greater part of the venom of
Nth. American snakes, neuro, or haemotoxins...or other??

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>


I dunno!
But I'm sure BWSmith or Ravnos will be along soon!
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[BWSmith]

North American Vipers contain primarily a hemotoxin. There are a few notable exceptions such as the Mojave Rattler where the venom is primarily neurotoxic. The Canebrake Rattlesnake and Eastern Diamondback Rattler (In my own back yard [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] ) Have show a much greater concentration of neurotoxins in recent years. The venom of snakes worldwide seems to be evolving.

The &quot;Cut &amp; Suck&quot; method is not the preferred snakebite treatment. It is hard to say what you would do in such an extreme circumstance. It has become more complicated particularly if you are an hour or more from a hospital. A friend of mine recently got bit on the hand by a subadult Eastern Diamondback. He had NO signs of necrosis or tissue damage. He had syptoms that were classically neurotoxic (Respitory failure, muscle fascilations, etc.). In that case, a constrictive bandage would be the best treatment prior to a hospital. I know of another Eastern Diamondback bite to the hand a few years ago in GA where the necrosis had crawled above the elbow in less than 30 minutes. In that case, there is not much pretreatment (First Aid) that can be done except for an injection of Epinepherine and H1 &amp; H2 blockers (Both to simply stop an allergic reaction to the venom and/or antivenin).

BTW Bigred, looks like it is time for field herping in South Africa! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] We need some nice pics. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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[bensnacks]

Just found this site in relation to what you were saying Brian, on the subject of 'evolving venom'.
http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/f...0_feature.html

The majority of venom in Aust. snakes is neurotxic , as a result the only recommended first-aid is
pressure immobilization bandage.



P.S. how do I put web links up as abbrv. or code??

_________________
L4L
&quot;Peeple of zee wurl, relax!&quot;-sailor the parrot.

[BWSmith]

Just clickt he &quot;URL&quot; button, put in the URl, hit enter, then type the text you want it to say and enter. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

I am printing up the article to read over lunch. Good job Ben, I have not seen that article before.
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[bigred]

Ben, there are quite a few bites a year, especially around this time, but relatively few deaths-they are the exception. The ones that prove fatal are usually the Black mamba bites, or the bites that occur in rural areas far from a hospital equipped with anti-venom. I can only think that the bite( it was on the calf) must have contained a large amount of envenomation.

errr BW, I am a teacher, and we took a group of Grade 10's on a camp 2 weeks ago, just outside of Cape Town, in a place called Grabouw- very mountainous, getting very warm in the day, and we saw 6 puffs but no cobras. I am taking the other half of the Grade there this weekend , so will spend longer herping, but some of the parents are a little worried, so have to be careful [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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[BWSmith]

Be sure to pack the camera! And hope the pics don't go in the Bleeder's Club forum! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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