A hospital in Australia is begging snakebite victims to stop bringing the snakes in with them
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- An Australian hospital is asking snakebite victims to stop bringing the snakes to the ER.
- The hospital’s director said that having a live snake in the ER puts staff and patients at risk.
- He said it also delays the time it takes for patients to get treated.
A hospital in Australia is asking snakebite victims not to bring the reptiles with them to the emergency room, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
In one instance earlier this month, staff at Bundaberg Hospital in Queensland were handed a plastic container with a small Eastern Brown snake inside, according to the news outlet.
The snake species is common across much of eastern Australia, and its deadly venom is the country’s most common cause of fatal snake bites.
According to The Guardian, about 3,000 snakebites are reported in Australia each year, with 41% coming from Eastern Brown snakes.
Last month, the newspaper reported that one of these snakes caused a man’s death after he was bitten multiple times.
According to Bundaberg Hospital’s director of emergency medicine, Adam Michael, the snake at his hospital this month was “not very well secured.”
It was also trying to escape the plastic container, ABC reported.
“The staff got a fright and the serious consequence of that is it delays people’s time to treatment,” Michael told the news outlet.
He added: “We want people to be able to get seen and assessed quickly, and having a live snake in the department slows up that process.”
A snake catcher told the news outlet that he had removed several snakes bought into the hospital, many arriving in plastic containers or bags.
According to the Australian Medical Association, wait times in Australia for emergency rooms are at their longest in a decade, 9 News reported last week.
While people bringing in snakes may think it will help doctors with identification and speed up getting the right treatment, Michael told ABC that all it does is endanger lives.
He said doctors aren’t trained to identify snakes, so it only “puts the staff at risk as well as yourself,” according to ABC.
Bringing in the snakes, he added, risks becoming a “huge” disaster with no upside.
“We can determine if you need anti-venom and, if so, what anti-venom you need based on clinical signs, blood tests, and also the snake venom detection kits that we keep here at the hospital,” Michael said.
