COURIER MAIL (Brisbane, Australia) 24 February 08 Darling Downs woman survives vicious king brown attack (Peter Morley)

A Darling Downs woman has survived a ferocious attack by a king brown snake that bit her seven times on the foot, with one bite puncturing a vein.

It has taken five agonising weeks for Meegan Harrison to recover from the snake's venom, which shut down some of her body's organs and pushed her close to death.

Twice doctors at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital put Ms Harrison, 32, into an induced coma. At present, she is in Toowoomba Hospital on a dialysis machine.

She may have to remain in hospital for another six weeks while her organs recover.

The king brown is one of deadliest snakes in the world and its bite usually is fatal when the venom is injected into a vein.

Ms Harrison owes her life to timber cutter James Bell who was working on the property Cecil Plains at Cecil Plains.

He was on the homestead verandah when Ms Harrison struggled back from feeding the chooks in the late afternoon.

Mr Bell, 50, who recently underwent a first aid refresher course covering snake bites, applied a bandage from the knee down to what he thought was the only bite on her foot.

He marked the outside of the bandage to indicate the bite site and Ms Harrison was rushed to Dalby where she convulsed. Her condition was stabilised and she was transferred to Brisbane where doctors found she had been bitten seven times.

Mr Bell said the snake must have been at least 2m long judging by the size of the bite he saw.

"The puncture marks involved a two-inch (5cm) spread and that means a pretty big snake," he said.

"It was probably in the chook pen looking for mice or eggs.

"She has gone through a lot – I understand that at one stage she was bleeding through her eyes and ears.

"She is a lot better now but gets very tired, presumably from the amount of venom that was injected."

Mr Bell said he believed climate change was also changing the habits of snakes.

"People should be made aware that snakes are about at different times than in the past and if I were in charge there would be basic first aid instructions in schools, especially rural ones," he said.

Last week, three women in southeast Queensland were bitten by snakes and residents of Caboolture, north of Brisbane, are under attack from a vicious native ant.
Darling Downs woman survives vicious king brown attack

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• AUS Press: Woman survives king brown - W von Papineäu, Thu Feb 28 18:47:28 2008