Posted on 12/01/2010 5:07:57 PM PST by decimon
Should you be the victim of a snakebite, the best thing you can do is get to a hospital as quickly as possible, according to a new review article from the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS). Current medical treatments, including new medications and surgery, if necessary, are far more effective for snakebites than anything you can do on your own.
“Previous generations of antivenin medications were notorious for causing negative systemic reactions,” says Adam W. Anz, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC. “But the antivenins we have available today can not only help avoid long-term damage from the snake venom, but they can also prevent the need for more invasive medical treatment.”
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* Approximately 45,000 snakebite injuries are reported annually in the United States.
* Seventy to 80 percent of snakebites occur in males.
* More than half of snakebites are to the hand(s).
* Most snakebites result from intentional exposure, whether in a professional context (e.g., snake handling) or nonprofessional context (e.g., playing with snakes in the wild).
* Alcohol consumption is involved in the majority of bites, resulting from risky behavior.
* The high correlation between alcohol use and hand injury implies that bites occur when the victim is behaving in an unsafe manner, not when he or she is attempting to evade the snake.
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(Excerpt) Read more at 6.aaos.org ...
What I can't figure out is what this Kowalski guy had to do with the Lone Ranger. ;-)
Poor kid.
Snakes are found near water and guys drinking beer are also found near water.
We were taught as Boy Scouts in FL, if you were really out there in the sticks and got bit by a rattlesnake, you were better off to find a good spot to hole up and wait it out for help, or for the worst to pass - that running off and pumping it around your body was worse that waiting for the worst to cycle through - you’d get pretty sick, but ultimately, you’d be alright.
I had two neighbors, both of whom were bad drunks. They went “fishing” on day in a wood jon boat. They always carried a side by side 12 gauge to shoot water moccasins out of trees.
One day as they were drift fishing along the bank, a BIG moccasin dropped out of a tree and into the boat. They were both so sh*tfaced, one of them grabbed the gun and let loose with both barrels, killing the snake but also shooting the bottom out of the boat.
They were so drunk that between the abandon ship drill and save the booze and tackle and gun they nearly drowned 10 feet from shore.
True story.
see my post #45.
“...because women are smart enough to leave the damn things alone’.
I am PETRIFIED of snakes. Normally, I would run like crazy at a big worm. The only time I didn’t was when a black snake of some sort tried to get into the carport during a summer day. I threw things at it and it still kept coming. Long story short: I hit the thing on the head with a shovel. I had seen that on t.v and it always showed you could kill it with one hit. Must have been a weak day for me since I had to hit the thing like twenty times. My husband still laughs at that one since he had the job of snake removal.
LOL!
5.56mm
decimon ~ What I can't figure out is what this Kowalski guy had to do with the Lone Ranger. ;-)
Name him, ping him.
Didn't know the celebrated fellow is a FReeper.
Everybody who is of any actual importance is, or at least a lurker...
I’m exactly the same way about cockroaches. Something in my reptile hindbrain just goes into total freakout panic mode when I see one of those things.
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