Snake breeder - bitten by Black Mamba - recovering

The condition of a 30-year-old snake breeder from northern Moravia who was bitten by a Black Mamba, one of the world’s deadliest snakes, has improved, the spokeswoman for Prague’s General Teaching Hospital said. Last Friday the man drove himself to a hospital in Moravia immediately after being bitten – alerting rescue services of his condition while en route. After that he was transferred to Prague by helicopter, and kept in an induced coma on artificial respiration. The hospital has declined to reveal additional details at the request of the man’s family, but snake specialists suggest the man was extremely lucky to have survived, saying he had probably not received a ‘full dose’ of the snake’s poison. The Black Mamba can inject 10 to 40 times the venom required to kill a human being and is lethal in almost 100% of cases.

Author: Chris Johnstone