‘Extremely venomous’ green mamba snake bites owner in North Carolina, zoo says
A North Carolina man bitten by his venomous pet snake is recovering after a zoo 250 miles away rushed anti-venom to the hospital where he was being treated.
Sean Foley, curator of Herpetology at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in South Carolina, told McClatchy News he got a call Sunday from North Carolina Poison Control. The request: 10 vials of anti-venom for a Raleigh man who had been bitten by a green mamba snake.
The zoo immediately started working to craft a plan to get the anti-venom to UNC REX Hospital in Raleigh as quickly as possible.
Green mambas are “extremely venomous,” and their bites can “shut down breathing really quick,” Foley said. Without anti-venom, the chances of surviving a bite are “pretty low.”
Herpetologists at the zoo packaged up the vials and put them on ice. They met a helicopter at a nearby hospital, and the anti-venom was flown to UNC REX, Foley said.
The process took about four hours, he said.
Medical staff administered four vials of the anti-venom, according to Foley, who said the amount needed after a bite depends on the severity.
The man, who was not publicly identified, is out of the hospital, the Raleigh Police Department said Thursday.
The department’s animal control officers responded to a call from the hospital about the bite, said police spokesperson Donna-maria Harris. But police are not investigating because no laws were broken.
Officers followed up with the man to ensure he was in compliance in terms of housing the snake, Harris said.
Green mambas are not naturally found in North Carolina. They “range from Kenya to Zimbabwe and also inhabit areas of eastern South Africa,” the Riverbank Zoo says.
The snakes, which can grow up to 6 feet long, are not “particularly aggressive,” Foley said. But they are “really quick,” dangerous and a difficult snake to deal with for those who are not trained.
Foley said the zoo — which is included in an anti-venom index that poison control centers can tap into — has had to provide anti-venom three times over the past six or seven months for various bites. That’s more than usual, he said, but it’s unclear why there has been an increase.
It’s not the first time the zoo has sent anti-venom to central North Carolina. In May 2016, a Chapel Hill resident was bitten by his pet king cobra and was administered anti-venom sent from Riverbank, The News & Observer reported.
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 11:46 AM with the headline "‘Extremely venomous’ green mamba snake bites owner in North Carolina, zoo says."
