An MD on local TV news last evening said that from his experience 15% of the victims of snake bite poisoning were bitten by dead snakes.
Can anyone confirm this?
This Snopes article indicates that the figure is accurate…but only for one hospital and during one period of time. It says that five of thirty-four snake bite victims at the hospital were poisoned by dead serpents.
You’d think this figure would be at least somewhat generalizable…I don’t see why the percentage would be drastically changed for a different area or time period.
This rang a bell…
At summer camp one year, a dog dug up a dead rattlesnake and was poisoned when the fangs got embedded in it’s nose.
Looking for a real cite, though…
[delurk]
I’ll have to dig around a bit to find actual cites to back up the assertion, but we were advised by the medical doctor that we consulted prior to opening our venomous animal temporary exhibit (who was an expert on treating snake bite victims) that envenomation from deceased venomous animals (including snakes, lizards, and spined venomous fish such as lionfish) was always possible. The glands that store the venom still have reserves after the animal dies (sometimes for years–venom is a very stable complex of proteins) and it is therefore possible to accidentally inoculate yourself with the toxins. Therefore it was (and still is) part of our necropsy protocol to a) always decapitate* deceased venomous snakes and lizards before doing anything else and place the head in formalin (which denatures the proteins in the venom) or to remove all the spines from venomous fish with forceps and to b) always have at least 2 people present for any venomous animal necropsy so that someone is able to sound the alarm in case an evenomation event occurs.
*This was always done by covering the head with something heavy (ie a book), cutting the neck quickly, and picking up the head with forceps–thus no need to actually touch the head at all and thus eliminate the risk of pricking a finger on the fangs.
-Michele
[/delurk]
Funny, I also heard this quote yesterday, but it was from one of Ken’s opponents on Jeopardy. Was the same guy on your evening news, talking about the same thing?
From the Snopes link:
I’ll be damned, that’s the guy who was on Jeopardy!