Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 29 Feb 2020
A 22-YEAR-OLD man has been rushed to Connolly Hospital in Dublin after being bitten by a highly venomous puff adder snake.
The National Reptile Zoo was asked to supply antivenom to combat the tissue-destroying poison, however there currently isn’t a supply for the specific species of viper in Ireland and there’s a shortage worldwide.
The zoo has sourced ten vials of the medication from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine but, depending on the severity of the bite, it could require up to 30 vials to combat the venom.
If required the rest of the antivenom will likely have come from Düsseldorf or Paris.
The man will have to be airlifted to Liverpool to receive the treatment or else the antivenom will have to be airlifted to Dublin.
James Hennessy, the Director of the National Reptile Zoo, said it is a “very, very serious” situation for the man.
“The thing about snake bites is, it could be what’s known as a ‘dry bite’, where you get away with losing only the tip of your finger, or it could have given him a full-on envenomation. And if the guy’s immune system isn’t 100% you know it can be enough to kill you,” he explained to TheJournal.ie.
Puff adders are an African species of snake with a haemotoxic bite, meaning they destroy body tissue. They are responsible for causing the most snakebite fatalities in Africa.
The zoo director added:
It tends to disintegrate and dissolve anything it comes into contact with. He’s almost guaranteed to lose at least a digit, depending on where he’s bitten, if not possibly a lung and it may cause internal organ damage and failure.
The Kilkenny based zoo is the 24-hour contact for antivenom in Ireland. It is not government-funded and provides it privately to individuals who have been bitten, however it only has antivenom for species it keeps.
The medicine is kept in centres around the world but there’s a worldwide shortage at the moment.
Hennessy believes it’s the first recorded potentially fatal bite in the history of the state, despite people keeping a wide range of venomous animals for decades.
The Herpetological Society of Ireland later released a statement saying that the incident was likely a “tragic accident” and the man had been keeping the snake as a pet.
“Snakes are amazing animals and many can make wonderful, rewarding pets. They are not out to get you,” it said.
The society said that venomous snakes have no place outside of their natural habitat or a professional setting and they are “especially unsuitable” for being kept in a regular household.
“We send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to the young man involved,” it concluded.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
That was cheap. If we had arranged and paid no doubt it would have been 2.5 million.
$7.9 million overall? Should have led with that!! Great for the Irish economy all the same – they should run another “Gathering” for politicians and Presidents!
And this is a scandal in the States? This happens on a daily basis here! We’re used to it, we’ve come to accept it as the norm!
Judging by the students reactions below her it looks like Malia is letting off some ripper of a fart.
And never have two young girls been so bored in their lives!
I wonder how many people invite guests to their house and total up what it cost to host them when they leave…
That’s 21c of toilet paper
€2.30 of electricity
€6 breakfast
80c milk and a tea bag
€1.50 for that glass you broke……
Don’t worry I don’t expect you to pay this I’m just making sure you and the whole world knows what my hospitality has cost me.
And where did all that money go seeing as Ireland is in such a ‘bad state’ ?
The culchies in the towns where he visited still have their communion money for fecks sake. No chance of that money being recirculated
Damn culchies. Stopping us all from being rich.
The book Animal Farm by George Orewell comes to my mind when I read about Obama admin and their extravagant lifestyles on US tax payers money.
During a recent trip to China the first family and their staff of about 70 stayed in the presidential suite at the Westin Chaoyang Hotel, which USA Today reports costs about $8,400 a night. Clearly the elite live by a different standard and have for a long time. Obama sure knows how to spend taxpayers money.
Yes he does, 100′s of millions on vacations, 4000 calorie state dinners, the best of everything including medical. Meanwhile the little people struggle with multiple part time jobs, poor quality high cost Obama care and young people not being able to find work after college. But he’s on their side right? What a delusion.
It won’t be too long before Obama will introduce in special powers to ban the very books that were written to demonize Soviet Russia. The tables have turned 180° and Now the United States has become the very same totalitarian Communist state.
The trip this week for our little president
To the uk prob will cost us a million
It’s a state visit, the host country pays.
The gathering or the shakedown with guilt of the diaspora as we all knew it to be.
And the book ” One flew over the cuckoos nest” comes to mind when I read some of these comments
Mike ya must be a dub
And the Govt will still tell you how great they are come the next election
have your say