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Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenomatio
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by JoeCrotalid on May 15, 2008
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Man saves kids, but left critical after coral snake bite
Reported by: Don Germaise
Email: dgermaise@abcactionnews.com
Last Update: 5/13 10:31 am
Coral Snake SPRING HILL, FL. -- A Spring Hill man is in serious condition after being biten by a coral snake. Sheriff's deputies say he was trying to get the snake away from his children.
According to a police report, Angel Elder saw her two children playing in the yard with a snake on Sunday. She told her husband, who got the kids away from the reptile.
Then Jonathan Elder picked up the snake to move it to a field away from his house. Sheriff's deputies say the snake bit Elder twice. Elder put the snake in a fish tank with a cover.
Elder eventually became very ill and was rushed to the hospital. The snake turned out to be a highly venemous coral snake. A handler came and removed the snake.
Angel told deputies her 36 year old husband was very ill and needed the help of an intubator to breathe.
Coral snakes are very colorful, known for their yellow, red and black bands.
Another case of poor media coverage. Patients do not intubators to survive-the man was placed on a ventilator, and this story would have been better served talking about the shortage of coral snake antivenom. In addition, this case happened in the region covered by my poison center but it was never reported to my knowledge. Hospitals many times do not report these cases which could assist in locating antivenom and possibly getting the patient off the ventilator quicker than just letting him ride out the venom.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by JoeCrotalid on May 15, 2008
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Because I felt this story could have been expanded upon to include more important issues like the shortage of antivenom and correctly identifying the snake, I wrote to the reporter and offered my assistance in addressing these issues if he desires to expand on the topic.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by SCatheris on May 15, 2008
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seems like there has been a lot of coral bites latley. It's pretty wierd, all of a sudden like 3 or so folks gettin bit?And from a species that doesn't cause a lot of bites too.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by JoeCrotalid on May 15, 2008
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This is actually about the 6th case this year so far involving humans. This doesn't include the cases of dog envenomations which have been 3 or 4 I believe.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by JoeCrotalid on May 15, 2008
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Since posting, I have been contacted by the reporter who does want to do a follow-up specificly dealing with the Coral Snake Antivenom Shortage.
I hope to also get info in the story regarding proper identification of the snake, and info out about the Bioclon antivenom Coralmyn which has been given an "Emergency FDA approval for use" but to the best of my knowledge only Miami-Dade may stock currently. Anyone from the Antivenom Bank want to confirm this for me? I know that Elda has received a Grant to study it's effectiveness in the north American Species.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by Cro on May 15, 2008
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Justin, it is not all that wierd that more folks get bitten by Coral Snakes this time of year.
The Coral Snakes are out and about because it is a warm, wet Spring, and because it is breeding season for them also. So, it is a lot more likely that folks will run into them. Also, in some areas of Florida, they are quite common.
Because they are attractive looking snakes, and do not look all that dangerous, some folks will pick them up, and get bitten. That fellow who took the Coral Snake from his kids had no idea what it was
Too bad that all of the schools do not require Snake Identification 101 in the early grades, LOL !
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by Buzztail1 on May 15, 2008
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It's actually much worse than them not offering snake identification 101, John.
Now, the people who could come into the schools and give the recognition training to children at no or very little cost to the school system budget have been priced out of business by the $10,000 required bond to display venomous snakes in Florida.
For 32 years I have brought venomous snakes into the classrooms near where I have lived throughout the Southeastern United States. Now it seems as if law makers are specifically trying to keep children ignorant and thus are endangering their lives.
Isn't government intervention great?
R/
Karl
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by JoeCrotalid on May 15, 2008
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The school system doesn't care about safety as you have stated. I have gone to schools during the great American Teach-In when invited and done individual class rooms which maybe has 20-25 children. I usually take a power point presentation with as many photos as possible to educate the children and teachers. I offered to do a safety class a couple of years ago for some of the schools in the New Tampa area that are built right on preserves and was turned down. In fact, one school had a student and an employee bitten in the same year-both by pygmy rattlers.
Now that I work for the poison center, I try to go do community events again with a power point presentation due to liability, but do take one of my non-venomous native species.
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RE: Poor Media Coverage again, Coral Snake Envenom
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by earthguy on May 16, 2008
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It's not just ignorance of venomous reptiles...it's total obliviation to all things natural. The words 'leaves of three let it be' mean nothing to most high school aged kids (and younger). I kept stats for a couple of years when I taught high school. About 8% of my students could ID poison ivy, even fewer could properly ID snakes (especially water snakes). Every flying insect suddenly became a 'hornet' or 'yellow jacket'. They frequently swatted mosquito hawks and dragonflies (both awesome mosquito predators). I guess the great outdoors can be scary if you are ignorant to your surroundings.
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