Reptile & Amphibian Forums

BOSTON HERALD (Massachusetts) 15 September 04 Poisonous snake bite lands man in ICU (Marie Szaniszlo)
A 70-year-old man remained in intensive care yesterday, three days after he was bitten by a venomous snake in a Westfield yard.
Franklin D. Browne of Milford, N.J. was bitten on the hand when he reached into the bushesto retrieve a ball, police said.
``This is extremely, extremely rare. Normally, they're quite docile,'' said Peter Mirick, a biologist at the state Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Environmental Law.
The seriousness of the bite suggests it was a timber rattlesnake, one of Massachusetts' two venomous snakes, which has been linked with only one death here in the early 19th century.
Poisonous snake bite lands man in ICU

THE REPUBLICAN (Springfield, Massachusetts) 15 September 04 Mistake delayed bite treatment (George Graham)
Westfield: As rattlesnake bite victim Franklin D. Browne's hand swelled to three times its normal size Saturday, emergency personnel at Noble Hospital scrambled to find the nearest supply of antivenom that would save his life.
Calls to area hospitals, including Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and Holyoke Hospital turned up negative, Noble Hospital officials said. However, the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester erroneously reported none in stock. And it later turned out that Baystate Medical Center did have the antidote.
"In the meantime we were going on the Internet to try and find it," said Browne's daughter-in-law, Ann Marie Browne who lives at Blue Sky Drive where the bite occurred.
Noble personnel, contacting the Massachusetts Center for Poison Control, were told the nearest supply of antidote was at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.
The 70-year-old Browne, taken by Lifeflight air ambulance to Providence, didn't receive his first antivenom shot until nearly five hours later.
It turns out the New Jersey man's agonizing wait for treatment could have been avoided.
Family members and Noble officials were shocked to learn yesterday that Baystate had a supply all along.
"We are miffed today in hearing that it was locally available," George J. Koller, Noble's chief executive officer and president, said yesterday.
Although his father is recuperating and might even be discharged today, Robert C. Browne, the victim's son, said a smaller person might not have fared as well.
Browne, who lives in New Jersey was bit when he reached into some bushes to retrieve an errant Wiffle Ball. At the time the yard was full of children - some just toddlers.
Officials at Baystate and Noble were at a loss yesterday as to how the misunderstanding or miscommunication occurred.
"We do have it, there is no question about it," Baystate spokesman Keith J. O'Connor said yesterday.
"Basically any institution does well what it does often," Stanley Strzempko chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Noble said. "In Massachusetts we do poisonous snake bites about once every two decades."
Strzempko said he talked yesterday with his counterparts at Baystate and Holyoke Hospital to better track local antivenom supplies.
"They are both committed with having antivenom supplies in the area," Strzempko said.
Koller said Noble stopped stocking antivenom because of its expense - $15,000 for the several vials of antidote that make up a single patient's treatment - and has a shelf life of only 90 days.
State Rep. Donald F. Humason Jr., R-Westfield, said he talked yesterday with Department of Public Health Commission Christine Ferguson about establishing antivenom protocols and funding to enhance local supplies.
Although Strzempko said the snake that bit Browne would have to be killed or captured for absolute confirmation, he agrees with Browne family members that it was timber rattlesnake.
Strzempko lives on Ridge Trail Road, which connects to Blue Sky Drive, and said his 13-year-old son found a shed timber rattlesnake skin in the nearby woods this summer.
Mistake delayed bite treatment

...that Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx was the major snakebite treatment center they'd have gotten some sooner?

Or..maybe its time for an AV Bank in/near Albany or NYC to serve the entire Northeast Region?

Then again, I'm just a private keeper. What do I know?

MH
---disgusted at the idiocy of laws and NY State liberal politics.

Shelf life of ninety days??? Give me a flippin' break!! Either the spokespeople at the hospital are really uninformed, or the reporter went to the Dan Rather school of fact checking.

~~Greg~~

AV is usually good for "many years" after the expiration date on the vial (I know they probably would't administer outdated AV though). 90 day shelf life???? That's a newspaper artical for ya...LOL
-----
Chad Bachman

Hi Matt:

Yeah no kidding. In 1974 I was taken to Albert Einstin in the Bronx (next to Jacobi) to treat my Timber bite.

Nice to know that at least a few Timbers are alive & well in MA!

I would like to start a Antivenom bank and know of a guy in Pittsburgh that was interested too. Maybe we should put our heads together and see what we need to get it going.

Are you going to be at the Oct. Hamburg show??

Best,
Al

>>...that Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx was the major snakebite treatment center they'd have gotten some sooner?
>>
>>Or..maybe its time for an AV Bank in/near Albany or NYC to serve the entire Northeast Region?
>>
>>Then again, I'm just a private keeper. What do I know?
>>
>>MH
>>---disgusted at the idiocy of laws and NY State liberal politics.
Link

Its the 16th...had to make sure I wasn't going away.

I know the fellow in Pittsburgh, we discussed it briefly a few months ago.

Great idea!!! Though I doubt I would be much help in a brain storming session I can definately make some sort of yearly finacial contribution!

If you guys come up with somthing let it be known to the forum.

Regards,
Jeremy

but some items that need to be addressed. At some point we'll have ot contact Al Cruz, and get the SHHS involved with some input as well.

While gettign the A/V process is not difficult, we would most probably need to distribute some sort of questionairre/application to:

1)determine the need of A/V (Quantities, types,etc.)

2) demographics of where people are in relation to the Repository.

Other items to look into are:

1) Legality issue associated with supplying it: I think this is just legaleze such that any use of the A/V is at the patients risk, and doctors, and the A/V bank will not assume any risk for death, loss of limb or disfigurement as a result of the bite.

2) Acceptibility and Support of AZA Zoos(I can speak with Bronx, Cincinnati, CLyde Peeling, amongst some others on this). It seems only right, that zoos would have access to it as well.

3) Best hospital/location to maintain supply (Jacobi, Albany Med., Hershey Medical Center?) Will the hospital be agreeable to do so?

4) Finally, the impetus to do it. I.E., I already maintain my own. THis seems like a lot of trouble to go through, to cover other keepers behinds, especially if its really the unskilled that get bitten.

This may end up turning it into a "For Profit" cause, where the persons overseeing it get compensated to do this(maybe even if its simply 'free' access to the antivenom. THis will have to be worked out.

Matt:

Lets continue this conversation by private email till we have some of the questions turned into answers.

Al

>>but some items that need to be addressed. At some point we'll have ot contact Al Cruz, and get the SHHS involved with some input as well.
>>
>>While gettign the A/V process is not difficult, we would most probably need to distribute some sort of questionairre/application to:
>>
>> 1)determine the need of A/V (Quantities, types,etc.)
>>
>> 2) demographics of where people are in relation to the Repository.
>>
>>Other items to look into are:
>>
>>1) Legality issue associated with supplying it: I think this is just legaleze such that any use of the A/V is at the patients risk, and doctors, and the A/V bank will not assume any risk for death, loss of limb or disfigurement as a result of the bite.
>>
>>2) Acceptibility and Support of AZA Zoos(I can speak with Bronx, Cincinnati, CLyde Peeling, amongst some others on this). It seems only right, that zoos would have access to it as well.
>>
>>3) Best hospital/location to maintain supply (Jacobi, Albany Med., Hershey Medical Center?) Will the hospital be agreeable to do so?
>>
>>4) Finally, the impetus to do it. I.E., I already maintain my own. THis seems like a lot of trouble to go through, to cover other keepers behinds, especially if its really the unskilled that get bitten.
>>
>>This may end up turning it into a "For Profit" cause, where the persons overseeing it get compensated to do this(maybe even if its simply 'free' access to the antivenom. THis will have to be worked out.

Ment "if" not "when" in the last sentence of my post. I did not mean to sound like you should feel/be obligated to this by any means

BTW, dont you have an article floating around on the net somewhere (VR perhaps)with a walk through on obtaining the permits for AV importation? ( I have been out of the internet loop for awhile) I would really rather do it myself instead of trying to dump the responsiblity off on somone else. Would you mind if I emailed you with some questions?

Thanks in advance man.

Regards,
Jeremy

There's a PDF document there. That was the intention for people to use it. After you've read it, feel free to send me any questions.

He/ (I) got less than a dozen responses to the post concerning the establishment of an antivenom banking our area AND of those only 3 ( THREE!!!!) seemed serious and actually offered to help. So the idea has been put on the backburner (way back), along with the website. It takes serious work and dedication....something most venomous keepers are lacking these days. Our passion will be banned soon, then all the so-called hot lovers will be acting upset..when 98% are way to lazy to actually do something about it in the first place. Sorry ( not really!) to rant but I'm just sick of the lack of respect and judgement of most that are keeping hots these days.
Sincerely
Shawn
AVHA

THE REPUBLICAN (Springfield, Massachusetts) 16 September 04 Snakebite victim 'very, very lucky' (George Graham)
Westfield: Bitten by a rattlesnake Saturday afternoon on Blue Sky Drive, Franklin D. Browne feels lucky to be alive.
"I am very lucky," he said last evening as he sat in his son's living room on Blue Sky Drive, his right arm swathed in bandages. "Very, very lucky."
The agony of the bite, Browne said, was beyond words.
"The pain is so severe and it happens so fast," he said. "I can't describe the pain."
But the 70-year-old New Jersey man said he was glad that it was him and not one of the many children playing on the front lawn of Robert C. and Ann Marie Browne's home when the snake bit him on the finger as he reached in the bushes to grab a Wiffle Ball.
"If that was a child, we'd be going to a funeral today," Browne said.
Bitten around 3 p.m., he was taken in the Fire Department ambulance to Noble Hospital, where, in a haze of pain, he learned some startling news.
"It was an experience when my hand was swollen to three times the normal size, and I heard the doctor say 'We don't have any,'" Browne said, referring to the hospital's lack of the antivenin needed to save his life.
What was more, Noble Hospital officials say that Baystate Medical Center in Springfield also reported having no antivenin, although it was in stock at the time. Baystate officials later confirmed it.
The University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester also reported having none on hand, something officials there later said was not true. Antivenin was in stock there.
Noble emergency personnel, scrambling for information, turned to the state Center for Poison Control, and learned that Rhode Island Hospital in Providence had the crucial antidote. So Browne was flown there by a LifeFlight air ambulance that took off from the grounds of the South Middle School.
Browne, woozy with morphine, said he barely remembers being loaded into the helicopter. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the emergency room at Rhode Island Hospital, surrounded by medical personnel.
"I didn't have a stitch of clothes on," Browne said. "You can't be embarrassed at that stage of the game."
Even with the antivenin in hand, medical personnel were intially unsure how to properly administer the lifesaving antidote, Browne said.
"They had to find out how to mix it," said Browne, adding that he believes his first course of treatment with the antivenin was given about 7 p.m., some four hours after his bite.
Stanley Strzempko chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Noble, said on Tuesday that he and his counterparts at Baystate and Holyoke hospitals have agreed to find a way to better track and maintain local antivenin supplies."
The retiree, an avid outdoorsman, was discharged yesterday afternoon after several days in intensive care.
Browne's right hand and forearm is still discernibly swollen. and a deep purple bruise on his upper arm extends towards his armpit. The snakebite, on the meaty part of his right forefinger, just below the first knuckle, remains an angry red welt.
Snakebite victim 'very, very lucky'