DAILY TELEGRAPH (Sydney, Australia) 24 March 08 Frantic rescue for snake victim (Clementine Cuneo)
Doctors are working to save the life of a man bitten twice by his pet brown snake.
The 48-year-old man from Heddon Greta in the Hunter Valley was bitten on the right hand and forearm this afternoon by one of the world's deadliest reptiles which he kept as a pet.
He is in a critical condition in the John Hunter Hospital after being rushed there by the Westpac Rescue helicopter.
The man was taken into surgery, where he was given antivenom in a desperate bid to stop the spread of the snakes' poison throughout his body.
A helicopter paramedic who travelled with the critically-ill man from his home to the hospital said the snake bit the man "fair and square".
"He's been bitten twice by the eastern brown snake on the right hand and on his forearm," the paramedic said.
It is believed the adult brown snake, the second deadliest snake in the world and which can grow up to 2m in length, was kept in a glass tank at the man's rural property.
Sometime shortly before 3pm, the man was attending to the snake, when it reared up and bit him twice.
A snake expert from the Australian Reptile Park on the Central Coast said Eastern brown snakes are responsible for most deaths caused by snake bites.
In January last year, a 16-year-old boy died from being bitten on the hand by the same type of snake as he wandered through bushland at Whalan in Sydney's west.
The teenager stumbled out of the bush to get help, and collapsed unconscious in the middle of a cricket pitch, where he suffered a heart attack.
Despite being given antivenom, the boy died in hospital the next day.
The same type of snake is believed to have killed nine-year-old Milena Swilks from Rocky River near Armidale in March last year.
The little girl was picking corn in the family's vegetable patch when she was bitten on the foot.
She collapsed and was taken to hospital unconscious, where she died two hours later.
Frantic rescue for snake victim