Australia has a large population of poisonous (venomous) snakes. Although snakes usually try to avoid people, encounters frequently occur accidentally, and there are approximately 3,000 snake bites reported every year, a couple of which will be fatal. The widespread Common or Eastern Brown Snake is responsible for around fifty per cent of these bites.
Do you know what first aid action to take if a member of your family is bitten by a Brown Snake? Read on to find out what to do in an emergency.
How to recognise a venomous snake bite
The Brown Snake injects its venom through two fangs when it bites. Many accidents occur when victims are gardening and reaching into dense, dark vegetation, and most don't even see the snake that bit them. Signs that someone has been bitten by a Brown Snake include:
Snake bites are treated with antivenom relevant to the species of snake responsible for the bite. For this reason, you should leave any venom on the skin or clothing of the victim where it can be used by the responding emergency services for identification purposes. Don't try to catch or kill the snake. For a start, it's actually illegal to do so in Australia, and second, the emergency services rely solely on venom samples to identify the perpetrator.
Emergency first aid for Brown Snake bites
In conclusion
Brown Snake bites can kill. If you know what to do in the event that someone is bitten, you'll give them every chance of survival and making a full recovery. It's a good idea to attend a professionally run first aid course where you'll learn more about what emergency care to give victims of snake bites.
Share9 May 2016
Hello, my name is Catherine and this is my blog all about health and medical topics. I was inspired to start this blog by my husband who works in a hospital. He isn't a doctor, he works in a lab testing blood samples. However, he is extremely interested in medicine. When his grandma got sick, he quickly established what might be wrong and got her all the help she needed. Sometimes is the evening, we sit and read textbooks and talk about medicine. It sounds insane but we both really like it. I decided to start this blog to show off some of what I have learnt.