Trekked the Sahara Desert yet?

[NGONGE]

Beware of adders say experts after girl, 10, suffers snake bite

By Tom Peterkin

Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 29/07/2008

 

 

Wildlife experts have warned that adders are becoming more active in the hot weather after a schoolgirl's leg swelled to three times its normal size as a result of a bite from Britain's only species of poisonous snake.

Mollie Hawker,10, spent six days in hospital when she was attacked by an adder while out walking with her family in a nature reserve near Bournemouth.

 

Although adder bites are rare, experts urged the public to look out for the snakes, which are common in moors and heathlands across Britain, as they take advantage of the warm spell to hunt the small rodents they feed on.

 

The schoolgirl was walking in flip-flops when she stepped on the potentially deadly snake triggering one of the most serious reactions that the doctors treating her had ever seen.

 

She felt a searing pain and screamed as the reptile injected her with poison.

 

Her mother Karen saw the brown and cream 1.5 ft-long creature slither away.

 

Mrs Hawker, 34, noticed two puncture marks in her daughter's big toe. Within minutes her whole foot began to balloon.

 

Mrs Hawker carried Mollie to her home in Poole, Dorset. From there, she was rushed to nearby Poole Hospital by ambulance and was admitted to the high dependency unit where she was hooked up to a heart monitor.

 

Doctors had to lower her leg to below heart level to stop the poison spreading through her body. Within hours her limb up to the thigh had turned black and she was put on a morphine drip to ease the pain.

 

Mollie spent six days in hospital and yesterday was back at home in Poole, Dorset, recovering on a pair of crutches.

 

Mrs Hawker said: "The doctors only see an adder bite once or twice a year and said Mollie's was the worst they had ever come across.

 

"They think it hadn't released it's venom for a long time so Mollie took the brunt of all of it.

 

"She was in so much agony and you could see where the poison had tracked up her vein to her thigh as it was black and bruised. I'm just thankful for all the doctors help as it could have been a lot worse."

 

Gary Powell, a nature reserve manager with the Herpetological Conservation Trust, which manages 40 amphibian and reptile habitats across Dorset, warned that the warm spell would have given the cold blooded creatures an energy boost.

 

"Reptiles are generally more active in hot weather," Mr Powell said.

 

"Adders are likely to be more active in the morning as they build up enough energy to look for food. In the heathlands of Dorset we have a lot of adders.

 

"It is the perfect habitat for them. Bites are incredibly rare as they don't seek human contact, but when I'm out with my kids I tell them to keep to the paths and not to go careering through the heather."

 

Mrs Hawker said her daughters leg started off red, then went black and purple.

 

"It was bruised from her foot all the way up to the top of her leg. It was two or three times the normal size," she said.

 

"The doctors put her on a heart monitor and watched her oxygen levels as they had no idea how her body would react to the venom.

 

"They lowered her leg to stop the poison from pumping up to her heart. A medical photographer even took pictures as they had never seen anything so bad."

 

Although adder bites can be fatal and there around 10 recorded cases of death from an adder bite in the last century, no-one has died from one in Britain during the last 20 years.

 

 

[N.O.R.F]

Careful in your back garden Ng

 

but thats why you got a cat init?

[NGONGE]

^^ The cat is gone. Just upped and left one day. It comes to visit sometimes but I think it moved on now.

 

This reminds me. On Monday night, as I was sat reading a book in the living room (whilst the Mrs was typing a report in the spare room), I suddenly felt someone looking at me! I turned around only to see a very pretty and fat cat standing there and staring at me. I have no idea who owns her but it was not even scared of me. My wife had a shock when she came later and found me sat there with a big fat cat on my lap.

 

(it came through the toilet window).

[Cara.]

^probably came to give you a polite thank you for the drink. A common antic

[STOIC]

I made a verbal prenuptial agreement with she who must be obeyed that when we got married I’ll go to the animal shelter and adopt two cats for our home. I intend to honor my words and bring two cats home, but I dread the thought of living with a cat under the same roof. I had a bad experience with cats when I was growing up. Whenever I was eating lunch with my dad and my brothers our kitty used to grab any bone I was wrestling with and off she was gone with it on top of our house roof! She will have to drag me down writhing in moaning than to make me go to the animal shelter. I always think that cats are arching out to fang me

[NGONGE]

^^ Why get her new cats, saaxib? It sounds like she's going to marry one anyway.

 

Cara, probably.

[STOIC]

^^^^I guess it is about keeping the promise that I made when my adrenaline was high. If her mom will let her take the once they have it home now, I’ll try to convince her get them, but still this will not solve my predilection for doom. I can sense a frothy attempt to force us to adopt one.