AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 28 December 05 Snake breaks cyclist's fall
A man has fallen off his bike and onto a snake at Viewbank in Melbourne's north-east this morning.
Ambulance paramedic Damien Warrillow says the man was riding along the Yarra River when the accident happened.
"He's fallen off his bike and fallen on top of a snake by the sounds of it and he's been bitten on the lower leg either by a tiger or brown snake," he said.
"He had a couple of friends with him so they've applied first aid ... they've applied the appropriate bandages and tyre and tubes to the lower leg."
The man has been taken to hospital and is in a stable condition.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1538772.htm
NEWS.COM.AU (Australia) 28 December 05 Mates treat snake-bite victim
(AAP) Quick-thinking friends of a Melbourne cyclist bitten by a snake when he came off his bike wrapped their mate's wound in an inner tube from his mountain bike.
The man, aged in his 20s, is recovering in hospital after his two friends treated the wound by wrapping it in the tube, winning praise from ambulance paramedics.
Ambulance spokeswoman Liana Cross said the man was riding today with friends along the Yarra River at Viewbank, in Melbourne's north, when he came off his bike and landed on the snake, believed to be either a venomous brown snake or tiger snake.
"He was very lucky, his friends did an excellent job," Ms Cross said.
"It was textbook stuff, they did everything right."
The snake bit the man on the shin, which his friends wrapped in the bike tube and some clothing.
One friend waited with him while the other rode to an area with mobile phone reception to call an ambulance, Ms Cross said.
He was taken to the Austin Hospital.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17676545-29277,00.html
