Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
were posted with the report, and although the snake responsible for the reported bite
appears correctly identified, this was not officially verified. The victim was offering
a mouse to the snake when the snake struck and, “
…
missed the proffered mouse
entirely, slid up the tongs
…
” and sank its teeth into the victim's left forefinger.
The snake was allowed to “hang on” to the finger for “a couple of minutes” due
to concerns of injuring the snake during forcible removal. The victim reported that
the wound bled while the snake remained attached, and bleeding continued while
attempts at removing the snake (by sliding a playing card between the jaws and fin-
ger) ensued. The attempt to remove the snake resulted in increased “chewing,” and
although the total time of attachment is unclear, the description obviously suggests
a protracted bite. The victim stated, “Once I had finally got him off, I realized that
I was going to feel some ill effects
…
”
The reported effects included bleeding (“
…
a steady trickle of blood and
plasma
…
”)/discharge from the wound for several days; pruritis of the hand/palm;
stiffness of the affected finger as well as the adjacent digit and associated metacar-
pals; gradual development of edema involving the hand; and bruising at the bite site.
The morning after the incident, the left hand was edematous to the wrist, and over
the subsequent 48 h reportedly swelled “to about twice its original size.” The victim
also reported “quite severe pain” (approximately 1 week in duration) that he related
to the edema, and that “lymph nodes in the left armpit were enfarcted (sic) and pain-
ful as hell.” The bite wound became “black and blue” and the bitten finger report-
edly remained “intensely painful, bloated, and unable to bend for weeks afterwards.”
The described effects followed a reported 10-day course, at which time the edema
almost fully resolved and the wound was “invisible.” There were no further effects
or sequelae reported. The victim chose not to seek medical consultation (and retro-
spectively expressed regret regarding that decision), and the only treatment consisted
of ingestion of an unknown dose of an unidentified antihistamine. He concluded that
a “much larger specimen
…
could conceivably cause a much more serious, even
fatal, envenomation.” He also compared the potential dangers of
T. jacksoni
to that
of
D. typus
and noted the “handful of deaths recorded for
P. olfersii
” as an example
of other “rearfangs” with lethal potential for humans.
3
Comments
As in many Internet/popular periodical reports, the author/victim attempted to detail
his experiences after receiving a bite from a captive snake, in this case,
T. jacksoni
.
There is a scarcity of reports involving
Thrasops
spp., but this report cannot be
accepted as a documented account due to issues involving absence of formal medi-
cal review and resulting description of physical exam, laboratory tests, and the like;
subjectivity per victim as author; misinterpretation of signs/symptoms; and addi-
tional mitigating factors as noted in Section 4.5. As this case purportedly involved
3
As detailed in section II, there are no acceptably documented or proven cases of human fatalities that
have resulted from a
P. olfersii
bite. The only non-front-fanged colubroid species that have caused proven
human fatalities belong to the genera,
Dispholidus, Thelotornis
, and
Rhabdophis
.
