That bite of summer has come early this year and with the heat, comes snakes. Capilano Beekeepers' Limited Chairman, Phil McHugh, has reshared a great article from Rob Timmings on managing snake bites. Rob is the director and principal educator of ECT4Health. We have made some slight edits to this article, for comprehensibility.
Did you know, the average time to death from a snake bite is 12 hours? The urban myth that you are bitten in the yard and die before you can walk from your chook pen back to the house is a load of rubbish. According to Rob, there are 3,000 bites reported annually, 300-500 hospitalisations, and 2-3 deaths. While not new, the management of snake bites (like a flood/fire evacuation plan or CPR) should be refreshed each season.
Let's start with a basic overview... There are five genus of snakes that will harm us (seriously) - Browns, Blacks, Adders, Tigers and Taipans. All snake venom is made up of huge proteins (like egg white). When bitten, a snake injects some venom into the meat of your limb (NOT into your blood). This venom can not be absorbed into the bloodstream from the bite site. It travels in a fluid transport system in your body called the lymphatic system (not the bloodstream). Now, this fluid (lymph) moves differently to blood. Your heart pumps blood around, so even when you are lying dead still, your blood still circulates around the body. Lymph fluid is different. It moves around with physical muscle movement like bending your arm, bending knees, wriggling fingers and toes, walking/exercise etc. Now, here is the thing... Lymph fluid becomes blood after these lymph vessels converge to form one of two large vessels (lymphatic trunks) which are connected to veins at the base of the neck.
Back to the snake bite site... When bitten, the venom has been injected into this lymph fluid (which makes up the bulk of the water in your tissues). The only way that the venom can get into your bloodstream is to be moved from the bite site in the lymphatic vessels. The only way to do this is to physically move the limbs that were bitten. So, stay still!!! Venom can’t move if the victim doesn’t move. Stay still!! Remember, people are not bitten into their bloodstream.
In the 1980s a three-step technique called the Pressure Immobilisation Technique (P.I.T) was developed to further retard venom movement. It completely stops venom/lymph transport toward the bloodstream. A firm roll bandage is applied directly over the bite site (don’t wash the area). Here is how to do it:
Step 1: While ensuring the patient is kept still at all times, apply a bandage over the bite site, to an area about 10cm above and below the bite.
Step 2: Using another elastic roller bandage, apply a firm wrap from fingers/toes all the way up to the armpit/groin. The bandage needs to be firm, but not so tight that it causes fingers or toes to turn purple or white. About the tension of a sprain bandage.
Step 3: Splint the limb so the patient can’t walk or bend the limb.
DO NOT:
- Wash the bite.
- Cut, incise or to try suck the venom out.
- Use a tourniquet.
- Remove the shirt or pants - just bandage over the top of the clothing. Remember, movement (like wriggling out of a shirt or pants) causes venom movement.
- Try to catch, kill or identify the snake!!!
In hospital health care workers NO LONGER NEED to know the type of snake; it doesn’t change treatment. Five years ago they would test on the bite, blood or urine to identify the snake so that the correct anti-venom could be used, but now they don’t need to do this. The new Antivenom neutralises the venoms of all the five listed snake genus, so it doesn’t matter what snake bit the patient.
Read that again - ONE injection for ALL snakes! Polyvalent is the one-shot wonder, stocked in all hospitals, so most hospitals no longer stock specific Antivenins.
Bites from Australian snakes tend to have three main effects in differing degrees:
1: Bleeding - internally and bruising.
2: Muscles paralysed causing difficulty talking, moving & breathing.
3: Pain and, in some cases, severe muscle pain in the limb. Days later the bite site may break down forming a nasty wound.
Final tips:
1: Allergic reactions to snake bites are rarer than winning the lotto twice.
2: Not all bitten people are envenomated and only
those starting to show symptoms above are given antivenom.
3: Did we mention to stay still?
Our Company Secretary/National Safety Manager, Annette, has also shared this fact sheet from St John Ambulance Australia as a helpful printout to put up in your shed.