Walking up the stone path to our house, I noticed that Suki was interested in something. When we got closer I saw it was a small black snake, maybe 15 inches long – very cool. It was definitely a burrowing snake, most likely a mole snake, of which I was sure there were none that were dangerous. My curiosity got the best of me and I gently picked the snake up by its tail. It wriggled a lot and grabbed onto my hand the way most snakes I have held usually do, but it slipped out of my hand and fell the 4 feet back onto the stone path. I reached down again and picked it up, but it slipped out again. Finally on the third round, the snake had lost its patience and bit me. It did not rear back and strike, but without me even noticing it jabbed me with a single fang. With a loud “BASTARD,” I dropped the snake for the 3rd and last time and incredulously stared at my finger as a teeny-tiny drop of blood formed.
From there, things got pretty surreal. I just stared at my finger wondering whether or not I should admit to Wendy that I just got bitten my this snake, and wondering and waiting for something to hit me, whether it be intense pain, or nausea, or convulsions, or something. I knew not to get excited and tried to remain calm while waiting for the first symptoms. Wendy freaked out immediately (This is Wendy – I feel that I need to qualify ‘freaked out’. Yes, I did tell Patrick he was an idiot for messing with the snake, but I was perfectly calm, didn’t scream or get hysterical, I was just pissed off. I calmly collected the machete from the tool shed, calmly put the dead wriggly snake in a Tupperware, and calmly drove Patrick and the snake to the hospital) and started yelling at me with why did you this, and why did you that, and what were you thinking, and… She got me our snake book and then convinced me to kill the snake so we could properly ID it. I didn’t want to kill it, but managed to even though at that point it was awkward to hold the panga (machete) because of the swelling and pain. Within 5 minutes my finger began to swell and glistened in sweat. I started to go into shock and as we got into the car I felt feverish. My finger was throbbing with pain and the skin & finger joints were beginning to feel stretched taught.
We couldn’t get through to the snake experts at either the Kilifi or the Watamu snake parks so we called my boss Rob, who has lived in East Africa for the last 7-8 years. Rob met us at the hospital. I went from feverish to chilled, then back to fever, while my right middle finger grew more and more swollen the whole time. After ~30 minutes, my finger had doubled in diameter and the swelling pushed into my hand. The emergency ward had no anti-venom. To compensate, the nurse came at me with syringes of who knows what (he had to double check with the doctor when we challenged him) as we tried to fend him off. I tried to ignore Wendy’s upset and exasperated ‘why’ questions. No one checked my temperature, pulse, or asked any questions like “what is your name” or “do you have any allergies,” before they came at me with needles of hydrocortisone, tetanus toxoid, and something else. When Rob dumped the snake onto the hospital bed for a closer look, the doctor and nurses jumped across the room. Soon Rob and Wendy were pretty sure they confirmed the snake species as Bibron’s Burrowing Asp – marked in the book with yellow skull & cross bones (one poisonous, but not KNOWN to cause fatalities), so Rob left to see if his private insurance clinic next door had any anti-venom. I sat there waiting, counting the mid section scales on the snake with my good hand, trying to confirm that it was not the evil cousin, the one which was marked with a red skull & cross bones…
Rob returned with the news that there was no anti-venom, but agreed to drive the dead snake to the experts in Watamu for IDing, while we stayed behind where I could either be treated for complications or rushed to Mombasa if needed. We moved to a bench outside where I lay on my back with my hand in the air – now throbbing and painful, but no longer swelling beyond its skin-stretched 150% normal size (the finger and back of the hand only). I really do not remember what we talked about (Wendy did grab her computer from the car to search the web for info), but I do remember that we were both thankful and scared. We did not really relax until Wendy finally got through to Royjan Taylor of the Bio-Ken Snake Farm, Watamu, and spoke with him for 12-15 minutes. He was very professional and super helpful, but still a little matter of fact about the whole thing – you could tell this was not his first phone call like this one. He had been bitten by this snake ‘a few times’ and confirmed that it was indeed ‘not physically possible to safely hold’ this snake. Luckily for me, I had picked up the very rare (and non-deadly) Bibron’s Burrowing Asp, not the much more common (but often fatal) Small-scaled Burrowing Asp. Rob met Royjan’s coworker 10 minutes later in Watamu with the severed snake in hand and she double confirmed the snakes ID and my safety.
Wendy and I then headed home to put me to bed and recover, when we found Suki waiting for us with a swollen paw. Apparently she took the first bite for me – and she got it riled up for me! After many ibuprofen and a few hours of sleep, we both woke up with slightly less swelling and at least a sense that recovery had started. That next morning, I got a follow up call from Royjan to check on my condition. He answered all of my questions about the snake, snake bites, etc. He told me that snakes can carefully control their venom output with each bite and have been recorded to bite as many as 8-10 times, with varying amounts of venom injected each time, not necessarily in a descending rate. What that meant is that Suki did not necessarily soak up all the venom for me, but that I still got lucky to not have my whole arm swollen and need morphine for the pain… He then went on to ask me to try and catch one of the offending snakes in case I happen to see any more around – just to make sure and use a long broom and a basket instead of my hands. He was very excited that we saw such a rare snake after they had not seen one for over 5 years. Wendy was not quite as excited and plainly explained to me that I would not be picking up or catching any snakes any time soon!
The swelling took about 3-4 full days to disappear completely and the joint pain took at least 4-5 days to disappear all together. The skin around the bite site and the finger sloughed off and peeled for several days after the pain stopped, reminding me constantly of my idiocy and also of my good fortune! Although I failed to win any Darwin awards, I am certainly much smarter for my troubles and can unequivocally say that I will never again pick up a snake unless a professional directly hands it to me!
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