The first day we arrived at our Santa Barbara Rancho Oso Camp, we heard about the little five-year-old boy who got bit by a Rattlesnake waiting for the bus. His mom was steps away on the phone. We are about a half an hour up the mountain from Santa Barbara and it got me thinking: What would we do if we were in this scenario? I have no idea how to handle a lethal snake bite. The first thing you should have in rattlesnake country is a snake bite kit. One of the methods suggested below if you cannot reach help is for another person to suck the venom out with their mouth and spit it out. This is ONLY recommended if help is too far away.
I am including a feedback on snake bites from our Facebook followers below:
“Snakes don’t inject venom into your blood stream unless they get lucky enough to actually hit a blood stream aka a vein or artery. Secondly, venom is only dangerous in the blood and is actually harmless when ingested unless you have ulcers or some other open wound within your digestive tract (literally the difference between poison and venom is that venom doesn’t hurt you when ingested only when injected). Lastly, as long as the venom wasn’t injected into your blood then yes you CAN suck it out hence why snake bite kits are just suction cups.” Derek Elliott.
What else to do:
“The USUAL best course of action is to remain calm and still, keep the wound location down hill from the heart, use cold compress upstream of the wound location if possible, and get to an ER within 2-4 hours (depending on the type of snake and health of victim). The reason I said “within 2-4 hours” is because you do not want to elevate your body temp or heart rate to get to help faster. Here’s a hypothetical to make the case, because it’s a balancing act”
“Say you get bitten by a deadly poisonous snake (death is possible within hours…there actually aren’t that many of these) 1 mile from the nearest ER. You do NOT want to RUN to the ER. You won’t make it. You should put ice above the bite, stay calm, get someone to turn the AC on max in their car, wait a few minutes remaining calm and still, get in the back or passenger seat, and have them drive you to the ER – or sit still, remain calm, and call an ambulance.You’ll have to make a value judgment based on your unique situation if this happens. Nobody else can make that specific decision because it’s a balance between spreading toxin through rapid heart rate and muscle movement and body temp vs. waiting around while the toxin does tissue/nerve damage and eventually gets to your heart/brain. Stay calm, make a plan, execute the plan. You OBVIOUSLY want to get to the ER as quickly as possible WITHOUT speeding the effects of the toxin.” Ken Morrow
According to the link below if you can get help quickly you should not put more risk on yourself by sucking the venom. If you like to go for long walks in the woods or camp in remote places you might want to consider taking a snake-bite kit, you can find it here http://amzn.to/2sf43iG .
Here are the different steps to manage a deadly snake bite courtesy Trails.com:
