Tourist bitten on penis by deadly brown snake
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 10:09AM BST 30/05/2008
A tourist in Australia is lucky to be alive after being bitten on the penis by one of the world’s most venomous snakes.
The man was having a roadside toilet stop when the deadly brown snake emerged from the bush and lunged at his crotch.
It bit him on the end of the penis but did not release a significant amount of toxin through its fangs.
Paramedics rushed to the aid of the tourist, who was on a road near the town of Laura, on the wild and rugged Cape York Peninsula of Queensland.
"It certainly had a swipe at him," an ambulance spokesman told the Cairns Post. "But it didn’t envenomate him. As it came through it must have got a bit of a shock."
The incident happened a month ago but has only just come to light after it was confirmed by medical staff.
Despite his lucky escape, the tourist was left vomiting and with stomach pain from the small amount of poison the snake had injected.
Paramedics wrapped his penis in plastic sheeting
and took him to hospital in nearby Cooktown, named after Capt James Cook, where he spent a night recovering.
The man, whose nationality was not released, was extremely fortunate to be alive but also “shocked
and embarrassed” about where he had been bitten, an ambulance spokesman said.
Brown snakes are among the most common species of snake in Australia and are often encountered around farms, in bushland and even in suburbia. They cause more deaths from snakebite than any other species.
The eastern or common brown snake has the second most potent venom of any land snake, second only to the inland taipan, also found in Australia. The brown snake’s venom is 12 times more toxic than that of the Indian cobra.
About 3,000 Australians are bitten by snakes each year, but on average there are only one or two deaths because most victims receive anti-venom.
Brown snakes account for about half of all Australia’s snake bites, with the rest from tiger snakes, death adders and taipans.
