Oi, wake up ya larrikins. Here’s another cracker true blue Aussie yarn for ya to scare ya foreign mates with. Some poor bugger from rural Queensland was having a snooze, and she got bite by a bloomin’ brown snake. Bloody rough day that is.
Last week Kasey Leadbetter was sleeping in her bed, minding her own business (ya know, being asleep), when she woke suddenly in the night to a horrible pain.
In her sleep Kasey had been bitten on her left hand by the second most venomous snake in the world: the eastern brown snake.
“I remember jumping out of bed straight away because it gave me such a fright,” she said to Nine News.
“My hand just felt like it was on fire and I could feel it was starting to travel up my arm.”
The snake had been hiding under the blankets of her bed. She was sleeping at a rural cattle station where she was working, near a town in Queensland called Glenmorgan.
“I was definitely scared. I’m not going to lie,” Kasey stated.
Which is reasonable, considering the fact that brown snake venom has been known to kill in as little as 15 minutes.
It’s also incredibly painful, with the snake-bite victim sharing her description of the sensation:
“My hand just felt like it was on fire and I could feel it was starting to travel up my arm.”
Thankfully Kasey was able to act fast.
She called her mum, who contacted the family running the cattle station employing Kasey, and they were able to have paramedics fly to the rescue.
Kasey Leadbetter was then taken via chopper to Toowoomba Hospital and given anti-venom, where she has been able to recover.
She has since expressed that she believes how to respond to snake bite should be taught in schools in Australia, which seems like a pretty good idea considering our country’s stereotype for living with dangerous animals.
If you are bitten by a brown snake or any other venomous snake, the best course of action as advised by Red Cross Australia is as follows:
- Have the victim rest/lay down.
- Call 000
- Do NOT wash venom off skin or clothes.
- If necessary, begin CPR. (Here’s a guide for that too!)
- If bitten on a limb, apply a tight bandage starting on the bite spot.
- Firmly wrap the bandage upwards from the bite, toward the heart.
- If possible, apply a splint.
- Keep the person still until help arrives.
You just know that this story is about to be used by the New Zealand tourism board in an ad for why you should go there instead of Australia.
And honestly, I don’t blame them. Far less of the animals are trying to kill you there.
Here some people aren’t even safe from snakes on their own toilets!
Kinda makes me wonder why we live here at all, if it turns out I’m not even safe in my own bed.
