NEWS-JOURNAL (Daytona Beach, Florida) 14 September 10 Bite victim gets away venom-free (Patricio G. Balona)
Conservation Southeast Joseph Mortensen stood outside his home Monday afternoon nursing two tiny, red puncture wounds a coral snake left on the tip of his left middle finger.
But the 49-year-old was more worried about the fate of the reptile that buried its fangs in his hand.
Four hours after he was hospitalized, Mortensen stood outside his home in Daytona Park Estates, near DeLand, smoking a cigarette, hospital identification bands still on his wrist.
"The doctor said it didn't let go any venom," Mortensen said. "They wanted to keep me in for 24 hours but why should I stay and pay $60,000 for nothing?"
Mortensen, who does not have any health insurance, said he is upset Volusia Animal Control officers told him they were going to "dissect" the snake.
"I got bitten because I was trying to save it from becoming road kill and now they are going to kill it," Mortensen said, shaking his head in disbelief.
A "critter lover," Mortensen said he was walking to his home when he spotted the snake on the road at 9:10 a.m. Monday.
"I hate seeing animals, including snakes, become road kill," Mortensen said.
He grabbed the red, black and yellow snake by the tail with his right hand and grabbed it near the head with his left hand. The 18-inch reptile was still able to turn and latch onto the tip of his left middle finger.
"I brought it and placed in a container. As far as I am concerned, it was my snake," Mortensen said.
His sister, who came by the Third Avenue home, called 9-1-1 when she learned Mortensen had been bitten by the coral snake, he said.
Animal control officers picked up the snake and took it to the Reptile Discovery Center at 2710 Big John Drive east of DeLand, said Becky Wilson, director of Volusia County Animal Control.
The snake is not going to die.
Instead, the subadult reptile, which appears to be 3 years old, will have a long and healthy life, said Carl M. Barden, director of the Medtoxin Venom Laboratories at the Reptile Discovery Center.
The lab, which produces antivenom to supply medical facilities, will add the coral snake to the venom line, where 70 coral snakes are already being used to produce antivenom, Barden said.
"Coral snakes are very important to us," Barden said. "Hopefully it will live a long and healthy life. That's the plan."
Dry bites, as likely happened in Mortensen's case, occur 25 percent of the time in snakebites, Barden said. With coral snakes, people have the misconception that they have to hang on and chew to inject venom, Barden said.
"But they are very capable of injecting a lethal dose of venom in very rapid bites or in a split second," Barden said.
Barden said coral snake bites do require a 24-hour observation because their venom has a delayed effect. They might not be painful or swelling does not occur at the time of the bite but if venom is injected, then it takes effect, sometimes longer than four hours, he said.
"I do hope that this gentleman did not get any venom in him," Barden said.
Mortensen said the doctor who attended to him at Florida Hospital DeLand told him that 50 percent of the time coral snakes inject venom when they bite and 50 percent of the time they don't.
"I guess I was on the lucky 50 percent side when it did not shoot any venom in me," Mortensen said. "That is why I am home."
Bite victim gets away venom-free

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