Panic

People panic in the event of a snakebite. The victim panics – so much so that he or she may get nauseous and start vomiting; those in attendance panic and make poor decisions as to applying first aid and assisting the victim; even doctors panic when faced with an emergency – several have called me, desperate for advice. So, when young Crawford Coulson walked into my office one Saturday morning in the Valley of a Thousand Hills (near Durban, South Africa) with a terrified look on his face and said, “I have just been bitten by a black mamba,” I knew I had to think fast.

I had no doubt that Crawford knew what he was talking about – he was the snake park curator at Assagai Safari Park, a crocodile and snake park in the Valley of a Thousand Hills. Although it may take anything from 3 – 16 hours for mamba venom to kill an adult, there are many cases where the victim has died within an hour. Read more.