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Coral snake bites teenager in Vero Beach
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by tigers9 on April 8, 2008
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Considering how many people get bitten by wild venomous snakes, how come are AR winning/convincing nave legislators to pass bans, when almost nobody is bitten or dying from captive exotic pets????
Sorry, I just had a blond moment trying to look for logic in government/politics;-)
Z
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/apr/08/coral-snake-bites-teenager-vero-beach/
Coral snake bites teenager in Vero Beach
By sta
Originally published 08:50 p.m., April 8, 2008
Updated 09:13 p.m., April 8, 2008
Coral snake antivenin was being brought in from Melbourne and Miami Tuesday night to aid a 15-year-old youth who was reported bitten in Vero Beach, a Vero Beach city official said Tuesday.
He was bitten Tuesday afternoon and was being treated at Indian River Medical Center, said Vero Beach Animal Control Officer Bruce Dangerfield. Further details werent available. Coral snake venom attacks the nervous system.
Unlike rattlesnakes, coral snakes dont strike, said Dangerfield. You have to pick one up to get bitten. Usually they just want to get away.
To treat the youth, two vials of antivenin were rushed in from Holmes Regional Medical Center, Melbourne. Ten more vials were being brought in from the Miami Venom Bank.
Each year, coral snakes bite about 80 Americans, half of them in Florida.
In late March, a pet dog in Jensen Beach died after killing a venomous coral snake in the backyard of his owner, Sheri Kalina-Waite. The dog died after antivenin arrived to late.
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RE: Coral snake bites teenager in Vero Beach
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by JoeCrotalid on April 13, 2008
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There has been an increase in the number of FL coral snake bites over the last year especially in the central FL region. I personally took care of 3 last year in my ED in Tampa only one of which required antivenom. An antivenom which is extremely hard to get your hands on because of its availability. This year as I work for the Florida Poison Control Center, I have already seen two coral snake bites.
What is interesting though is that during the original snakebite conference in Nebraska-Joseph Gennaro gave a lecture about the effectiveness of the coral snake antivenom and found it ineffective because it was made by a species of coral snake other than the FL species. There may be some cross species reactivity which is helpful, but the bigger problem is availabilty, and the fact that it may have be flown to a patient via Miami-dade which does take some time to achieve. As with CroFab, all emergency departments with the potential of seeing a coral snakebite victim should have stock already on hand to prevent delays in treatment. In addition, the usual dosing is 3-5 vials, and a large speciman can envenomate with a single bite without chewing as seen in my antivenom case who developed neurological symptoms from the bite.
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