Guys please be careful, Im merely posting this as an example of how quick things can go wrong.. Even to those of us that is very strict on handling protocols.
On Saturday afternoon at 15h55 I was tagged by my Juvenile Green Mamba Dendroaspis angusticeps How it happened? I was cleaning the cages and giving fresh water, and I had removed the Mamba from his enclosure, put him in a temporary container.
When I had done with his cage I removed him and as I was lowering him he got spooked and whipped around, out of the hook and put two fangs into my left hand.
I put him back rinsed the site of the bite, grabbed my protocol bag that hangs on my door, with bandage inside, applied a pressure bandage and proceeded to Hosp, my wife being the driver. I called Marcel, to meet me there so he could speak for me in case things went wrong. 5min after the bite I was hooked up to just about every machine they could find in Trauma, and had been stuck with all the needles they had.
They prepared to hook me up to a ventilator and had all pipes and tubes out that would scare a plumber. I was hooked up with Ringers solution, given Cortizone shots as well as Tetanus.
We consulted with Prof Muller who used to head up the poison unit at Tygerberg as well as Arno Naude, and Dr Tony Phelps, all who was very helpful in the treatment.
and then we waited.. they phoned around and within an hour had 12 vials of polyvalent anti venom on standby, in trauma..
30-40m after bite I had numbness around the mouth, chest felt heavy, and had difficulty breathing, BP and HR went up, and we waited, after 30 min, I breathed a bit easier and all stats returned to normal, monitored for another hour, then moved to ICU for monitoring.
My body was sore as if Ive been beaten all over, had difficulty and painful swallowing till Sunday evening, it felt as if I was balancing a wheelbarrow with bricks on my chest..
At 04h00 sunday morning my hand started swelling my hand went puffy, and continued to down my arm to my elbow till Sunday evening around 22h00.
The supprot i had from my friends Drs and staff was absolutely amazing,b especially in Trauma on how they handled the situation.
Monday morning Dr examined and with MUCH hesitation, discharged me around midday..
Swelling is almost gone, but hand is still clumsy to use, and can’t hold a cup.
but getting there.. Lesson learnt.. get a deeper hook for young elapids.. and dont touch snakes a day before you due to go to Knysna!