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Last week, the death of a young woman who was bitten by a snake in her toilet was reported. This sad news sent social media to frenzy and many have had to ask serious questions about what to do to prevent having snakes in toilets. But beyond that are other important questions. How do we help someone who has had a snake bite? Are all snake bites dangerous? I hope to address these questions making this as short and simple as possible without boring you with medical terms.

First, you need to know that snakes are into two broad categories – Venomous and non-venomous. Only about 15% of about 3000 species of Snakes are venomous. Most of these venomous snakes however, are in Africa and Asia.

Three main groups of venomous snakes are

Viperidae also called Vipers. They include adder and rattlesnakes. They cause swelling at the site of bite and can move into the blood stream within 30 minutes of bite, leading to symptoms such as vomiting, hypotension and internal bleeding in different parts of the body that can lead to death.

Elapidae. This is the Cobra family. The site of bite is usually not swollen but is very painful. There is also damage to the tissue at the site. There is vomiting, followed by neurological symptoms and weakness of the muscles. If the weakness gets to respiratory muscles, victim may be unable to breathe very well and can lead to death.

Hydrophiidae. The venom can cause painful muscles and also cause kidney damage. So also, paralysis of Respiratory and heart muscles.

Now with understanding of what can happen with snake bites, it is important to also know what to do as soon as possible to prevent the worst possible complications. You may not be able to identify which snake is venomous or not. Therefore, you must treat all snake bites in the same manner.

1. First, Calm Down. Panicking will do you no good. It doesn’t solve the problem and won’t reverse what has happened.

2. Move victim away from snake bite. You may be tempted to want to run after the snake and kill it. If you are the victim, you may end up getting another bite. If there are a large number of people available to help, let some help the victim while others kill the snake at a good distance to avoid being bitten themselves. Time is of essence.

3. If the snake can be identified, that is helpful but if not, don’t waste time trying to. Helping the victim is the most important thing at this time.

4. Remove any jewelry. If the venom is the type that causes swelling, removal of jewelry is important so as not to cause more injury.

5. Immobilize the person completely. You have to splint the affected part, often the limb to stop it from moving. See attached pic. Place the person on a stretcher or a make-shift one in order to lift them as a whole entity. see image below.


6. DO NOT APPLY A TIGHT TOURNIQUE – This is what many people do in all cases of snake bite. But this can cause more damages in the type that causes swelling. However if you can identify it as a neurotoxic venom, then move on to the next step.

7. You can apply a form of bandage only if you are able to recognize the snake as a neurotoxic snake that doesn’t cause local swelling. The bandage is the pressure immobilization bandage. Check this link for how it is applied.

8. Position the victim appropriately. They should not lie flat. The affected part of the body must be placed below the level of the heart. Their chest area should be higher than the bite site. This should delay how soon the venom can reach the heart.

9. You should also put them in recovery position. Do this by laying them on their left side with mouth turned down. This position will ensure that they don’t choke on their vomitus in case they vomit. It also prevents obstruction of their airway in case of paralysis of the muscles of the tongue.


9.Move them to the hospital as soon as possible.

11. Avoid trying to suck out the venom or applying local herbs and concoction. These can cause more damage.

12. Don’t apply ice or water on the bite site.

What can be done In the Hospital

Test

A test can be done to detect the type of venom. I have not seen this done in Nigeria. But it is possible that it is available in some hospitals. What the test does is detect antibodies to venom which will help identify the exact type of venom and guide on the right antivenom to use.

Treatment

*Antivenom should be used. They are lifesaving and can save the victim from all the sufferings caused by the toxins. Two types of antivenom are Monospecific antivenom that treats bites from a specific type of snake and Polyspecific antivenom that treats bites from a number of snakes found in a particular geographic region. Antivenom are however in short supply in this part of the world. Hopefully more would be done to equip health centers across the Country.

*Other treatments include giving Antitetanus

*Pain killers to help relieve pain

*Respiratory monitoring

*Other symptomatic treatments. Patients will be treated based on the symptoms they show. Some may need IV fluid, bleeding control, airway support, etc. Only trained personnel will be able to identify these needs. Giving everything to everybody will cause more harm than good.

*Treatment of complications like kidney failure, and rehabilitative care may follow.

Summary
It is important to know the first aid care you can give to victims in order to help keep them safe before getting to the hospital. I hope that this has been helpful in that regard. I will be posting more life-saving tips by God’s grace.

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Share this with your friends, family and colleagues. Also,read 9 ways you are using Antibiotics wrongly.


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Wash

Just cut open the skin and let the blood wash out the venom while tying the upper section

ITbomb:
Wash

Just cut open the skin and let the blood wash out the venom while tying the upper section

Shikina!

No long story but may we not be unfortunate. I hate snake die

Cut the bite area up and apply Bitter kola, it solve part of the problem. Before you do everything the op write up there the person go don reach his/her ancestors.

ITbomb:
Wash

Just cut open the skin and let the blood wash out the venom while tying the upper section

It is comments like this that made me decide to share this on this forum. When people post, most of you just want to comment and end up misleading others.

Many people die before reaching the hospital because of things like this. You tell them to do things not backed by science and when it gets bad, you rush them to the hospital and expect miracles. When you don’t get that, you assault the medical practitioners.

It’s up to whoever decides to believe you.

Lalasticlala what do you think?

I saw this topic and expected it on the front page. I had to search for it to recheck the points today. This is a topic that should makefront page but the mods will look away.

lala
dominique
mynd44

Interesting. I think we should be wayyy more concerned about this then Covid . Just curious ... would applying heat to the bite area help reduce the effectiveness of the venom? ... not saying not to take the steps you listed.

Originalsly:
Interesting. I think we should be wayyy more concerned about this then Covid . Just curious ... would applying heat to the bite area help reduce the effectiveness of the venom? ... not saying not to take the steps you listed.

No. heat does not help in any way.

Snake bites are more common during the raining season. We see more incidents of snake bites in hospitals now. Thankfully, most are not venomous.

Also, I just realised the available antivenom is quite expensive. About 30,000 naira for a vial. A person’s need for it would depend on the level of envenomation and one person might need up to three which makes it very important to prevent these snake bites.

I may have to edit my original article to include preventive measures.