NORTHERN DAILY LEADER (Tamworth, Australia) 13 January 06 Snake bite victim a medical marvel
A Quirindi man is lucky to be alive after a bite from a brown snake almost killed him.
Rocco Giandomenico's brush with death saw his kidneys shut down in an attack so venomous his case may now help researchers save the lives of others. Only three prior attacks have led to organ failure, and they were all in Western Australia.
The 67-year-old was getting netting from underneath a shed in the backyard of his Stanley St home, at Quirindi, when the snake latched onto a finger on his right hand. He said the snake had got itself tangled up in the netting and latched onto his finger as he pulled it out from underneath the shed.
"At first I thought I had caught myself on a piece of wire," he said.
"I kept pulling the netting out and what was latched onto my finger just kept coming. It was then I realised it was a snake."
Mr Giandomenico faced further drama when he was rushed from his home to hospital.
"My daughter immediately put a bandage on and we drove straight to Quirindi Hospital," he said. "But I had to be taken by ambulance to Tamworth as there was no doctor."
His wife Cecilia said it was touch and go for a couple of days as his kidneys shut down.
"He's turned a corner now, but [then] it was a different story," Mrs Giandomenico said.
"His platelet levels were only four at one point and he spent a few days in the renal unit. Your platelets are like mesh and stop you from haemorrhaging. You usually have between 150 and 400 platelets, so if you get below 50 there is a greater risk of haemorrhage.
"It was very frightening for a while. He's been hooked up to a dialysis machine because his kidneys shut down."
Tamworth Base Hospital critical care physician Chris Trethewy said Mr Giandomenico showed some features never seen before in a brown snake bite victim.
"The kind of symptoms where one organ system fails has only ever been seen in three cases documented in Western Australia," Dr Trethewy said.
"This is a new frontier for researchers studying the symptoms and effects of a brown snake bite."
Doctors are unlikely to find out whether the snake that bit Mr Giandomenico was a Western or Eastern brown, as it was killed by his son-in-law and dumped.
"Because of the unusual evolving features of venomation displayed he has been enrolled in the National Snake Venom Detection Study funded by Menzies Health," Dr Trethewy said.
Mr Giandomenico, who is recovering in a ward after being moved from intensive care, said he was extremely grateful to all the staff at Tamworth Base Hospital.

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