Bitten by a Sedge Viper !

Due to the seriousness of mistakes within our chosen avocation, it is probably wise to discuss mistakes when they do happen. For me the mistake came very shortly after I began keeping venomous reptiles. It was only a little over two years into the venomous hobby when I was bitten on the thumb by a Sedge Viper, Atheris nitschei. I was young and inexperienced and everything I knew about hots I learned on my own. I didn't know any other hot keepers so I just jumped in head first and took my chances. That was my first mistake. You should always find and work with an experienced keeper before getting your first venomous animal.

I had gotten way too comfortable handling my snakes in those 2 short years and I must have pinned and picked up a venomous snake everyday. To be honest, at that time it was just to hold the snake and get a rush. That was my second mistake. I let good judgment take a back seat to pointless, dangerous activity. You should never pin and handle a venomous animal unless you absolutely have to. Don't let your bravado get the best of you. Always use a shift box when cleaning cages and if you need to treat or probe a venomous animal use tubes or foam to secure them.

I was out cleaning cages one afternoon when I learned what was to be a very painful lesson. The first cage I cleaned was that of a large Sedge viper, around two and a half to three feet in length. I took a bag and two clamps out , and clamped the bag to the counter. I then took the snake out, placed her on the floor and pinned her the way I had done many times. I picked her up behind the head with my right hand and by the tail with my left hand. I carried her over to the bag, placed the tail in first, then held the bag open with my left hand as I dropped the snake in the bag. When I dropped the snake I made the mistake of holding onto the bag instead of letting go. She caught herself on the edge of the bag with her prehensile tail and in one fluid motion, shot straight up and out and bit me on my left thumb. I didn't feel any pain from the bite, but I knew it had happened.

In disbelief, I looked down to see the two fang marks and a couple of drops of blood. I quickly hooked the viper and put her back in her cage. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, I quickly headed back inside my house to tell my wife what had happened and that I needed her to drive me to the hospital. She was in the middle of giving our little girl a bath and asked if it could wait until she was through. I kind of laughed and said, "NO, we have to go now!" It was only about a 15 minute drive, but it seemed like forever. About half way to the hospital my hand began to feel as if it were on fire. Literally.

When I arrived at the hospital, I told the nurse through my clenched teeth what had happened and she took me straight back. I had a packet of information already assembled with the scientific and common names, a picture of the snake, it's origin, and who to contact on how to treat the bite. The doctor just looked at the picture and said "Pretty snake."

That's it! He didn't even take any information from the packet and therefore didn't know how to treat the bite. By the time he returned, they had me hooked up to an EKG and blood pressure monitor to keep an eye on my vital signs. The swelling was well past my wrist and the pain was excruciating.

At this point the doctor decided to cut and suck the bite even though I told him the treatment was obsolete and besides that, it had been too long after the bite to do any good. He also decided to give me some antivenin at this time. I told him that there was no antivenin for Atheris yet and that the crotalidae antivenin wouldn't work. He just smiled and said, "Yes it will. It works for all snake bites."

I guess I was too young to know that I could have and should have refused the antivenin at this point, so I ended up letting him treat me the way he wanted too. After all, he was a doctor right ? But this brings up another point. Don't assume that all emergency room doctors know how to treat snake bites. Especially from exotic species. Unless your doctor has spent time with the Peace Corps in Africa, chances are he's never even heard of a Sedge viper.

Well, by the time he finished cutting and suctioning the bite site, they had pumped 11 vials of Wyeth Crotalidae Polyvalent Antivenin into my body. And yet, the swelling was past my elbow and I was blacking out from the pain ! As they were taking me to my hospital room from the ER, I lost consciousness. After four hours I awoke to discover, much to my dismay, that the swelling was past my shoulder and into my chest. The pain fortunately had subsided due to a morphine drip, but this was really the least of my concerns at this point. Also, my hand was so swollen that my fingers were spaced out as far as they could go but they still touched each other. The hospital called in a hand surgeon but when he arrived he wasn't very eager to cut on me. He said that as long as the swelling didn't cut off the blood flow to my fingertips, he wasn't going to cut to relieve the pressure. The technical term for this is fasciotomy and in reality they are performed way too often with hemotoxic snake bites.

I was talking with my hand surgeon when the real fun started. This is when I found out that the venom had inhibited my blood's ability to clot. The doctor's felt that my platelets had dropped too low and that I needed a blood transfusion. I thanked God when they tested my blood once more just before they took me out for the transfusion and discovered that my platelets had come up just enough to avoid one. Blood transfusions are often needed with severe hemotoxic envenomations.
I wasn't in the clear though; I was still technically a hemophiliac. My blood was very thin and the doctors were worried that I could start bleeding internally. I couldn't even get out of bed because they were scared I might fall or bump into a table and bleed to death. And I suppose that it was actually a likely scenario. After being in the hospital for over a week, I finally talked them into letting me go home. By this time most of the swelling in my hand had gone down and all of the swelling was out of my arm. My hand did have a little stiffness and a few blood blister's, but it was much better. After two weeks and multiple trips to a hematologist, my blood returned to normal. Fortunately, the only lasting effect from the bite is a totally stiff joint on my left thumb, due to the tissue destruction of the ligament.

If you do keep or are thinking about keeping venomous snakes, please understand that you can never be too careful. Many bites result in permanent injuries and are occasionally even fatal. A large percentage of these accidents can be avoided with proper handling techniques and equipment. But if the lasting physical effects of my bite and brush with death aren't enough to keep you from being careless, maybe it will interest you to know that my total hospital bill was $25,000. Though my insurance covered 80%, that left me with a $5,000 debt that I am still paying on. Heard enough ? I thought so.

NOTE: Atheris nitschei is also commonly known as the Great Lakes Bush Viper and the Black and Green Bush Viper.

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