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Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by satyrod on May 7, 2009
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In the 1970's an individual was bitten by a Krait while force feeding it, if I recall correctly. He was treated by Dr. Burchill Liles and survived. I believe the guy's name was Randy Lee. I lived down the street from the guy and some guy from FL was flown in to transfuse Randy. That saved him and got him off the vent. It was on a TV show, "That's Incredible", I believe. Please let me know if I am remembering correctly.If not please refresh my memory.
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Cro on May 7, 2009
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Hard to say Charles. The only person self immunizing with snake venom in the 1970's was Bill Haast of the Miami Serpentarium.
He is credited with saving the lives of 21 folks with snake bites, by using his blood for transfusions.
He did self immunize with krait venom, however his own bite from a krait was one of his worst bites.
"In 1954 he was bitten by a blue krait, a snake that comes from Asia. Drop for drop, the krait's venom is
many times more poisonous than a cobra's.
``I had never heard of a krait bite victim ever surviving,'' Haast says.
``I felt like the skin had been stripped from my body, like every nerve in my teeth was exposed, like my hair
was being ripped out of my head.''
Haast survived, barely."
I can not find anything right off about the 21 bite victims that recieved blood from Bill Haast, but, perhaps one of them is the person you are talking about.
Perhaps others will know more.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Peter on May 8, 2009
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The person you are referring to was Bill Hasst aright. Lee was bitten by a baby Blue Krait he was trying to tube feed and darn near died from all accounts. This was just prior to my moving to Monroe to work in the reptile house there and I remember meeting Lee once or twice although this experience seemed to put him right off messing with venomous snakes.
Dr. Liles later treated me for my Twin Spotted Rattlesnake bite and as I recall he thought that the blood transfusion from Haast had been pretty important in saving Lee's life. We considered ourselves lucky to have a doctor as knowlodgable and interested in snakebite as Dr. Liles in town even if his speciality was urology!
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Cro on May 9, 2009
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Thanks for the update Peter ! That is a very interesting story, and it is very interesting to know that Bill Haast was able to save the life of a krait bite victim, even though he, himself, had a bad time with a krait bite.
It would be very interesting to know more about the 20 other folks who were saved from snake bite from transfusions from Bill Haast. Most likely, we will never know much, due to medical privacy issues.
I have heard resently that Bill Haast still injects a venom mix from 24 different venomous snakes, in a 1/1000 dilution, to keep up his immunity. That is really amazing for a man who is in his 90's.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Catsloveme on May 3, 2010
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Hi - the man biten by the Krait was my brother, Randy Lee and Bill Haast was his savior. And yes, his story was on That's Incredible. I am trying to find the episode because I would love to have a copy. You see, Randy was killed in a boating accident on May 3, 1998, so all memories of him have taken on significant value to those he left behind. I was a joy to come across this post today, the twelve year anniversary of his death. Feel free to write with any questions. I will try to answer them to the best of my ability. Randy's story was also in the "Star" magazine. I'm so happy that I have a copy of it!! All the best!!
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Catsloveme on May 3, 2010
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Hi Peter,
Randy Lee was my brother. And yes, he almost died. He was on a ventilator when Bill Haast arrived from Florida. He was unable to hold his eye lids open for several months after the bite. Also, he was unable to taste for a significant amount of time. He was a very sick fella. He was bitten by a rattle snake when he was 16 years old and learned the hard way that he was allergic to anti-venom! Anyway, write with questions if you like. Take Care!
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by Cro on May 3, 2010
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Carlyn,
I have recently started a tribute site on Facebook
called : Bill Haast - The Miami Serpentarium
You and others who are interested can visit it at this link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110165559022391&v=app_2373072738#!/group.php?gid=110165559022391&v=wall
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by JRLII on May 3, 2010
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Hi guys...My name is James Randall Lee II, the man who was bitten in Monroe is my father. He died 12yrs ago today. Funny I just found this thread. Actually my sister did.
I didn't really know him growing up as my mother and I moved to Illinois after the divorce. Finding him mentioned on here was a pleasant surprise.
Here is a link to an article I have from the National Inquirer about the blood transfusion and the "Snake proof man".
http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l212/Jrsu37/?action=view¤t=daddysnakebite.jpg
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by venominme on May 3, 2010
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I’m a huge Bill Haast fan. I can tell you that he did not self immunize with krait venom at the time of his bite, which was significant. It also was two bites! He co-authored a paper with Melvin L. Winer on the incident back in 1955 called, “COMPLETE AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY FROM THE BITE OF A BLUE KRAIT SNAKE (BUNGARUS CAERULEUS).” There was no antivenom available. Haast had self immunized with only Indian cobra, Cape cobra and king cobra up to that time. The paper suggested a cross-resistance from these to the krait that might be used to develop a polyvalent antivenom. It could have been his self immunizing along with the mechanical ventilator that saved him, but he damn near died any way.
I hope we can recover any materials related to the incident where Haast was used to save Randy Lee from the krait bite and add it to the collection started on the Facebook tribute page. I’d love to see the story from Star magazine reprinted.
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RE: Krait Bite Survivor in Monroe Louisiana
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by pictigaster1 on May 3, 2010
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Carlyn I remember the interview with your brother as well as haast.To me this was very inspiring the way Bill went straight to the blood transfusion .I remember that he was tubeing because that is what Bill did for his kraits.Your brother was saved by one of his heros .He knew exactly who he was and what he did.In those days snake keeping was in the neanderthal era.Feeding a snake like that was very difficult and tubing was the lesser evil to keep them alive.Bill was known for having the largest kraits in the world all tube fed.In my early days I tube fed many snakes to be like him.Then I found out feeding worked alot better and was alot less risky.Did your brother continue to keep snakes after that or was he done then.
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