Snake Bites

[Mighty_Emperor]

You don't want to say bad things about the dead but he did possibly have this coming:

World Champion 'Snake Man' Killed by Cobra

Mon Mar 22, 7:37 AM ET

Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's Boonreung Buachan, holder of the Guinness Book of World Records title for spending the most time penned up with snakes, was killed by a cobra that bit him during his daily show, a hospital doctor said on Monday.

Boonreung, 34 and dubbed Snake Man, was rushed unconscious to Prai Bung Hospital near his home town, 350 miles northeast of Bangkok, Dr Wipa Praituan told Reuters.

"He was brought here with no signs of life. He wasn't breathing and his heart didn't beat," she said.

Boonreung was listed by the "Guinness Book of World Records" in 1998 after living with snakes in a glass box for seven days.

An epileptic, he went into convulsions after being bitten, but no one took him to the hospital initially because they thought he was suffering an epileptic fit.

Boonreung's father said he would give his son's 30 snakes to a zoo because nobody in the family dared deal with them.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...1&u=/nm/20040322/od_nm/life_thailand_snake_dc

 

[StoryofE]

I just heard about this on my local news channel:

------------------------------
local6.com
Minister Dies From Snake Bite During Service
Members Practicing Serpent-Handling During Easter Service
POSTED: 10:57 AM EDT April 14, 2004


ROSE HILL, Va., -- The minister of a church in southwest Virginia died after being bitten by a snake during church services.


Authorities said the Reverend Dwayne Long of Rose Hill was bitten by a rattlesnake Sunday afternoon and refused to seek medical treatment.

Long died early Monday at his home.


Lee County Sheriff Gary Parsons said Long was a minister at a Pentecostal church where members practice serpent-handling.

Parsons said Long was holding a rattlesnake during an Easter service when the snake bit him on the back of a finger. He said the congregation prayed for the minister, but no one -- including Long -- sought medical treatment.

The sheriff said he doubts any charges will be filed because "it's their belief."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
------------------------------

http://www.local6.com/news/3004498/detail.html

 

[OneWingedBird]

The sheriff said he doubts any charges will be filed because "it's their belief."

Surely his belief was that he ~wouldn't~ get bitten

Religious snakehandlers get bitten quite often, I'm told that they usually get away with it because rattlesnake venom isn't always lethal in real life, esp. if they pick older snakes. Possibly too they use a tournique if it's just a finger that's been bitten, so they get away with just losing the use of that finger instead of the poison ending up anywhere critical.

 

[Stormkhan]

So ... regular venom strikes builds up a tolerance to some breeds of snakes. Now, tell me ... how exactly does being bitten by poisonous snakes prove the existence of God or even the strength of faith in this particular sect?

These whacky Christians, eh? How can you figure `em out?

 

[Pete Younger]

I guess the snake symbolizes the devil, get control of the snake and you have control of the devil...didn't work this time though.

 

[Stormkhan]

And yet his followers won't see anything wrong with this ...

Is it any wonder aliens are staying low profile with this kind of wierd stuff knocking about?

 

[Vitrius]

So ... regular venom strikes builds up a tolerance to some breeds of snakes. Now, tell me ... how exactly does being bitten by poisonous snakes prove the existence of God or even the strength of faith in this particular sect?

These whacky Christians, eh? How can you figure `em out?

Biblical literalism. The faithful shall "drink poisonous things and take up venomous serpents, but shall remain unharmed." Some of these places complete the prophecy with gulps of insecticide or other oral toxin. Really, in a twisted way, it's the mainstream Christians who are perplexing and weird, since they don't apparently follow their own scriptures when it looks a little too dangerous.

For those of you who remember Sunday school:

Now, let's see them move the Appalachians with sheer faith. Maybe make some nice beach front property.

 

[OneWingedBird]

Really, in a twisted way, it's the mainstream Christians who are perplexing and weird, since they don't apparently follow their own scriptures when it looks a little too dangerous.

But it does also say "Do not put the lord your god to the test"*, so I suppose some believers might argue that's why the handlers get bitten, then again, the handlers evidently don't believe that (or at least don't apply it to snake handling) so you would think that they'd get suspicious after a while when god has told them that they won't get bitten and they keep getting bitten.

Or maybe they'll just go on believing whatever.

* I would give the reference but I'm not on my home machine right now so no favourites menu for a quick lookup.

 

[Vitrius]

But it does also say "Do not put the lord your god to the test"*, so I suppose some believers might argue that's why the handlers get bitten, then again, the handlers evidently don't believe that (or at least don't apply it to snake handling) so you would think that they'd get suspicious after a while when god has told them that they won't get bitten and they keep getting bitten.

Or maybe they'll just go on believing whatever.

* I would give the reference but I'm not on my home machine right now so no favourites menu for a quick lookup.

A. Religion was never written up to make sense.

B. It wouldn't be God-testing to handle snakes, but simply following prophecy and scripture. "They will..."

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting account of this which takes place near where I grew up in Alabama:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140254587/102-9001249-3191333?v=glance

From: http://www.orlandoweekly.com/weird/index.asp?now=1520

The Rev. John Wayne "Punkin" Brown Jr., 34, died on Oct. 3 of a rattlesnake bite while ministering at the Rock House Holiness Church in northeast Alabama near Scottsboro. In a landmark book on snake-handling preachers in the South (Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington), Brown was called the "mad monk," the one most "mired in the ... blood lust of the patriarchs." His wife, Melinda, died in the same way three years ago at a church in Middlesboro, Ky.


sureshot

 

[StoryofE]

In a landmark book on snake-handling preachers in the South (Salvation on Sand Mountain by Dennis Covington), Brown was called the "mad monk," the one most "mired in the ... blood lust of the patriarchs."

I read that book, it was great. Highly recommended!

 

[Seminole10]

but I found it absolutely amazing.That anyone who has just experienced a personal traumatic event of this magnitude would have the presence of mind to post a thread before going off to scream.:eek!!!!:


http://members3.boardhost.com/RATTERRIERS/msg/193507.html

If you are allergic to snake bites you will not know it till it is too late. My husband, Blaine died within 15 minutes of being biten. He did have time to tell tell his daughter, Cat that he loved her, before passing out in her arms. I will go scream now.



BTW: This site doesn't require registering before posting.I want to say something there myself but I'm still pondering what I would say.:hmph:

 

[mejane]

Well, she didn't say it had just happened...

I'd like to know why she thought he was allergic and not simply bitten by a poisonous snake

Jane.

 

[brianellwood]

There are plenty of adders on the moors behind my flat, and I always take an aspivenin syringe in my pocket when I walk there. This is used by medecin sans frontiere people around the world and enables you to suck out the poison as soon as you are bitten. It can be used with one hand. It can be used on bites and stings of all sorts, and although a bit expensive is worth having around even on the beach. It just might have saved this poor chap's life.

 

[Anonymous]

sorry to be a cynic but how do we know this isn't just a sad hoax?

 

[Anonymous]

Thank goodness I live in Britain, where the worst bitey things you'll come across are adders and weaver fish, and the wildlife won't try and kill you.
:eek!!!!:

 

[Seminole10]

Well, she didn't say it had just happened...

I'd like to know why she thought he was allergic and not simply bitten by a poisonous snake

Jane.

Probably because of the 15 minute time limit.Even the most toxic of poisonous snakes don't generally kill within 15 minutes. I am assuming she thought it was anaphalytic shock due to an allergic reaction. Also she didn't say it was a posionous snake.

I hang out on this speciality board and the few regulars are well known among ourselves. Believe me this happened within the last 24 hours.

I know if it had been me that had been bitten I would have had a heart attack right then and there...toxins and allergic reactions would have to wait in line.

 

[Seminole10]

Thank goodness I live in Britain, where the worst bitey things you'll come across are adders and weaver fish, and the wildlife won't try and kill you.
:eek!!!!:

Hmmm,no one ever dies there due to allergic reactions to bee stings? Interesting.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Woman killed by her pet viper

Suburban neighbors unaware of what lived nearby


By Reid Forgrave
Enquirer staff writer


NORTH COLLEGE HILL - Neighbors knew a woman living nearby had iguanas because a month ago she mentioned she'd been losing sleep because two of her iguanas had been fighting.

And they knew she was an animal lover, as she would come into and out of her house with all sorts of new animals - rabbits, birds and cats.

But what residents didn't know - until their quiet, 44-year-old neighbor died Saturday at University Hospital after being bitten by one her venomous snakes earlier in the week - was that the modest, unassuming two-story house at 1830 Emerson Ave was home to at least nine poisonous snakes and more than a dozen other snakes, lizards and alligators.

Police believe an urutu pit viper bit the woman on Labor Day, Sept. 6, and neighbors said she drove herself to Mercy Fairfield Hospital. She was later transported to University Hospital, where she remained in critical condition until Saturday evening, when police received word that she died.

"We have no idea how she made it to the hospital in the first place," said North College Hill police Sgt. Robert Kidd.

The woman's name was not released Saturday because police had not yet been able to notify her family members.

Saturday morning, officials from University Hospital called North College Hill police to let them know more poisonous snakes might be inside the house in the suburban neighborhood of modest two-story homes.

Police broke down the woman's front door, and three herpetologists from Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens entered the house.

"All I know is, those policemen were pretty scared," said Helen Amrein, who lives two doors down from the reptile house.

An ambulance waited outside the house in case a venomous snake attacked.

"We're going into an environment we're not familiar with, and we don't know where these animals are," said Winston Card, the zoo's conservation program manager for reptiles, amphibians, and aquatics, who entered the home with two reptile keepers. "It's just not safe. There are people who do this safely, but there are people who don't do it safely, and this is the consequence."

In the first place the reptile keepers checked an upstairs bedroom, they found more than a half-dozen large lizards running around. Among the animals roaming free around the house were two monitor lizards, two alligators, one rhinoceros iguana, two Solomon Islands tree skinks and one tegu lizard.

All the venomous snakes were in secure plastic cases throughout the house, police and zoo officials said. But the herpetologists found non-venomous animals under boxes and under piles of clothes.

"We just kept turning more things over the more we looked," Card said. "They're animals we deal with every day. But we'd never know what we were going to pick up when we turned something over."

The herpetologists spent hours Saturday afternoon carefully picking through the house, and they believe they retrieved all the reptiles from inside the home.

But there was no way to know for sure.

"There's no guarantee we got everything out of the house because there's no idea how man she kept in there," Card said. "We think we got all of them, but we don't know for sure."

Zoo officials said all the animals appeared to be healthy, although veterinarians will give the snakes and lizards physical examinations during the next several days.

Neighbors were bewildered Saturday evening after having learned that the woman who'd lived there for eight years had kept these animals.

"It's a little weird," said Tawnia Goodlander, who lives across the street from the reptile house, and whose daughter - and six-month-old granddaughter - live next door. "We knew she had iguanas, but we didn't know she had twenty-something snakes inside. You'd think maybe someone out on a farm would have something like this, but in a residential area with children around, you gotta wonder why she'd have these poisonous snakes."

Ohio law prohibits anyone from keeping animals that aren't indigenous to the state, and a North College Hill ordinance prohibits anyone from keeping dangerous animals.

There is no law prohibiting the sale of exotic animals across state lines, police said.

"They're not something people should be keeping as pets," Card said. "It's not responsible to keep these venomous pets in her house in a residential neighborhood. It put her life at risk, and it put our lives at risk, too."

-------------------------------
Pet parade

Among the reptiles found inside a North College Hill home Saturday:

• One gaboon viper (venomous).

• Two monitor lizards.

• Two alligators.

• Two urutu pit vipers (venomous).

• One rhinoceros iguana.

• One shieldnose cobra (venomous).

• Two western hognose snakes.

• One rat snake.

• Two rhinoceros vipers (highly venomous).

• One timber rattlesnake (venomous).

• One albino western rattlesnake (venomous).

• Two Solomon Islands skinks.

• One monocled cobra (highly venomous).

• One tegu lizard.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/09/12/loc_loc4ssssnake.html

Blimey.

 

[TheQuixote]

Tiger snake bed attack
By SUE BAILEY
and AAP
01feb05

REPTILE Rescue has warned of snakes getting into homes after a Tasmanian woman survived an attack in her bed.

The Launceston General Hospital confirmed the St Helens woman was released from hospital yesterday.

She was bitten at least three times on her lower arm by a deadly tiger snake that was sleeping under her pillow last Wednesday morning.

The woman's husband administered first aid and she was taken by air ambulance to the intensive care unit at the LGH.

Reptile Rescue state co-ordinator Maria Novy last night said the volunteer service, which removes deadly snakes from hundreds of homes each year, had removed about 20 snakes from inside homes this season.

"We've had an extra amount of snakes in houses," Ms Novy said.

"It is common to get two or three, or a maximum of three or four, but we've had about 20 inside houses [from about 200 calls].

"On hot nights people leave their front and back doors open and water bowls for their cats and dogs.

"The snakes head for the water and a cool spot.

"We get the odd few in a bedroom but most go where there is water ... kitchens, bathrooms and laundries.

"If people leave windows open and there is lattice nearby that gives them easy access for climbing in too."

Ms Novy warned homeowners not to be complacent.

"We've had snakes in new housing development areas where they have been disturbed and in semi-rural and bush areas," she said.

The St Helens couple did not wish to be identified.

The woman's husband said although snakes were common in their garden they had never been troubled by them before.

"It wasn't particularly aggressive -- we'd probably been sleeping with it for a couple of hours before it struck out," he said.

"It was just objecting to being pushed.

"The first two bites were only a warning and probably had no venom in them.

"It was only after this warning failed to have the desired effect, being left alone, that the snake used its venom."

Tiger snakes, which can reach 1.8m in length, produce large amounts of highly toxic venom.

The Mercury

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Another Wal Mart snake attack:

Man bitten by snake at store

Byatrick Donahue, Executive editor
02/02/2005


A call to Liberty 911 was placed at 7:26, reporting a man had been bitten by a snake in the store's lawn and garden center.

Liberty County Animal Control officer Linda Cordry said the snake was captured and taken with the man, whose name has not been released, to the Liberty Regional Medical Center emergency room.

"We got a plastic container and got the snake in it," she said.

The snake, a 10-inch long baby timber rattler, was eventually destroyed.

Wal-Mart store officials could not be reached for comment.

Just how the snake got into the plant the man was handling is also a mystery. Cordry speculated it might have come from the work being done on Frank Cochran Drive Extension, adjacent to the store, if its habitat there was disturbed.

It also might have been in the plant to start with and the warm weather in early January threw off its biological clock and ended its hibernation early.

"With the unseasonably warm temperatures, they wake up," Cordry said. "Usually, they stay underground until it warms up."

A snake regaining consciousness in winter does happen, she explained, but in these circumstances.

"This is not an unheard of incident," Cordry said. "Sometimes, when little old ladies move their plants inside into the heat, a snake in the plant will wake up."

------------------------
©Hinesville Coastal Courier 2005

Source

 

[tastyintestines]

Girl May Lose Arm After School Snake Bite Sun Oct 23,12:52 PM ET



POTTSTOWN, Pa. - A 14-year-old girl may lose her arm after being bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake at school, authorities said.

ADVERTISEMENT

The snake was caught in Valley Forge by a 17-year-old male student, who took it in a shoebox to a drama club gathering at St. Pius X High School on Friday, Lower Pottsgrove Police Chief Ray Bechtel said. No regular classes were held that day, which was designated for staff development.

The boy was showing the reptile to other students when it bit the girl's finger, Bechtel said.

The girl, whose name was not released by police, apparently threw the snake across the room and the boy threw it outside. The snake was not found, but authorities were able to identify it because the boy photographed it with his camera cellphone, said Bechtel.

The victim was treated at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center about 45 minutes after being bitten, he said.

"The doctors said if it had been a half-hour longer she would likely have been dead," said Bechtel.

However, police said she could still lose her arm.

Police did not have an update on the girl's condition Sunday. She had been in very serious condition at Hershey Medical Center.

No charges were filed but police said they were investigating.

Copperhead snake bites are typically not fatal but are extremely painful and may cause extensive scarring and loss of limb use, according to the North Carolina Cooperative Extension of North Carolina State University.

___

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051023/ap_ ... _snakebite

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Snakes

Members of these churches don't claim that they won't be BITTEN, but rather than the venom won't harm them when they are. But if they DO die it's merely God telling them that it's time to come home.

Snake handling religions are illegal in many states (constitutional provisions or not) but the laws are rarely enforced. Some of the southern states would quite literally go broke building new prisons to hold all the snake handlers.

In any case, being bitten by venomous snakes and even drinking strychnine seems a lot less fatal to these individuals than it it would be for the rest of us, Christian or not.

 

[Min Bannister]

Near Darwin award here.

The Scotsman

A HILLWALKER who nearly died after he was bitten by an adder revealed that he picked up two of the snakes so his brother could take a photo of them with a mobile phone.

Robert McGuire was bitten last Saturday while holidaying on the Isle of Arran.

The 44-year-old suffered a severe allergic reaction to the bites and had to be taken to hospital by air ambulance from a remote area of Goat Fell. He spent six days receiving treatment.

Speaking for the first time since he was released from hospital, Mr McGuire described the moment he was bitten.

"I was out for a walk with my brother Steve and his kids. We were going off to have a picnic at a local beauty spot.

"The next minute, one of the kids ran up and said there was a snake in the grass. I just thought it was a grass snake.

"I just bent down to pick it up so my brother could take a photo with his mobile phone. Suddenly a massive black snake just appeared, so I picked that up too. It was then that the second one just sank his fangs right into my hand and then the other one did the same to my other hand."

 

[TheQuixote]

Suddenly a massive black snake just appeared, so I picked that up too. It was then that the second one just sank his fangs right into my hand and then the other one did the same to my other hand.

:laughing:

Who in their right mind (apart from Steve Irwin) would pick up a 'massive black snake' out in the country?

 

[gordonrutter]

Who in their right mind (apart from Steve Irwin) would pick up a 'massive black snake' out in the country?

Steve Irwin and In their right mind should not appear in the same sentence unless the word not is also used.

Gordon

 

[gerardwilkie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6201292.stm

Bite kills Malaysia 'Snake King'

Ali Khan Samsudin, 48, had entered the record books for locking himself in small spaces with hundreds of snakes or scorpions for days at a time.
The old adage "once bitten twice shy" simply did not apply to Mr Ali Khan.
According to local press reports, he had his first altercation with a king cobra 27 years ago.
So when, on Tuesday, one of his subjects inflicted what was just the latest of many bites, he had not been unduly worried.
However, two days later, his condition worsened suddenly and his family rushed him to hospital. He died before he could receive treatment.
Ali Khan Samsudin found fame in the early 1990s when he lived for 12 hours a day for 40 days in a small room with 400 cobras.
That earned him the title of Snake King.
In 1997, he acquired another record - Scorpion King - after shutting himself in a box with 6,000 of the creatures for three weeks.
He was reportedly bitten 99 times in his life.
He leaves two wives, five children and a protege known as the Scorpion Queen, who he trained for her own record-breaking stunt two years ago.

 

[ramonmercado]

Rattlesnake bites customer in Wal-Mart
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18067653

Rattlesnakes lie in wait for their prey

Related Stories

Man fined over pet shop alligator
Deadly snakes on display

A Wal-Mart customer is recovering after he was bitten by a rattlesnake in a garden department of the store chain.

Mica Craig said the reptile pounced as he was shopping at the store in the north-western US state of Washington.

The 47-year-old stamped on the serpent and was later treated at hospital with anti-venom, after his hand suffered serious swelling.

Wal-Mart apologised, and said it was investigating how the snake had entered the store in the city of Clarkston.

Kayla Whaling, a spokeswoman for the chain, said: "At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident.

"We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity."

Another customer, Maria Geffre, told Reuters news agency the snake was at least 1ft (30cm) long with four rattles.

Mr Craig said the serpent attacked as he reached down to brush away what he thought was a stick from a bag of mulch.

The purchase was intended for his marijuana plants, which Mr Craig said he was licensed to grow for medical reasons.

 

[ZakariyaAliSher]

Rattlesnakes in Wal-Mart? Good. About bloody time we returned to survival of the fittest. Maybe now all the folks who shop there can loose some weight running from cougars and grizzly bears.

Actually, I don't know about the stores in Washington, but east of the Mississippi, Wal-Mart's tend to have outdoor garden areas that are only closed off by a gate. It would be pretty easy for a snake (ANY snake) to get past that. Come to think of it, I'm surprised (and perhaps a little disappointed) it doesn't happen more often. At the very least I could restock my terrariums :-D

 

[ramonmercado]

Rattlesnakes in Wal-Mart? Good. About bloody time we returned to survival of the fittest. Maybe now all the folks who shop there can loose some weight running from cougars and grizzly bears.

Actually, I don't know about the stores in Washington, but east of the Mississippi, Wal-Mart's tend to have outdoor garden areas that are only closed off by a gate. It would be pretty easy for a snake (ANY snake) to get past that. Come to think of it, I'm surprised (and perhaps a little disappointed) it doesn't happen more often. At the very least I could restock my terrariums :-D

Thats it, I'll avoid Wal-Marts!

Welcome to the board.