King-size Snake Bite

CharlieJ · #1 (**permalink**) 08-30-2006, 11:01 PM

King-size Snake Bite
SHAKING serpents! Helen Scattergood was bitten by a snake in deepest Sandiacre. . .and laughed it off. It sank its fangs into a finger and hung on while wriggling about.

Mum-of-three Helen had to smile when a neighbour spotted it dangling and exclaimed: "I think it's bit you." She politely agreed. But things slithered out of hand when the black-and-white nipper was safely eased into a plastic ice cream carton. Police advised Helen to have a hospital check-up after the incident in a back garden in Lawrence Street.

An ambulance crew turned up to take her to the Royal Infirmary, Derby. They they drew smiles by insisssstting the snake should also go to hospital for a check-up to see if it was poisonous. Nail technician Helen, 34, said: "I felt perfectly OK and knew it was nothing sinister."

"I would not have gone near it if I felt it was harmful. But they said I should go to hospital with the snake. It was no major trauma. They just took my blood pressure to make sure I was all right. Then they told me it was not venomous - but I knew that by then. Then they said 'We want to keep you in all night.' I said 'no way.'"

By then it was 1:40am on Wednesday and Helen headed home to Sandiacre. The snake later made a journey to the freedom of a reptile sanctuary run by the RSPCA. It is believed to be an escaped pet. Charity group official Sophie Wilkinson said experts identified it as a Californian king snake, a baby only about 15 inches long.

She said: "When they grow to about seven feet, they become constrictors. It probably bit because it was frightened. They would not normally go after people and attack them." Helen only got into the tangle to help a neighbour who saw the odd visitor curled around plant pots. "She has a snake phobia but I don't and neither did the hospital nurses. They all came to look and admire the snake," added pet lover Helen, who has two cats and two dogs.