I'm away at work at the moment and two days ago was woken up while off shift by the Offshore Manager saying I'd had a phone call and needed to call home immediately. This isn't a nice situation of course and a lot of stuff goes through your head before making that phone call.
Anyway, made contact with the wife and she was at the hospital with my daughter who had been bitten by a snake. It seems she was running around the garden in the evening playing with the dogs when she kicked a bag, and there was a little green snake hiding underneath. It bit her on the side of her heel. Unfortunately the snake disappeared in the ensuing panic but after talking to the wife it was a pit viper, almost definitely a white-lipped pit viper. We have had several of these in the garden in the past. (First rule after a snake bite - kill and take the snake to hospital with you for identification for correct anti-venom. But these days I would think a good photo would suffice).
I'm writing this two days later in the comfort of knowing that she's made a good recovery, but at the time there was huge worry and talk of me getting evacuated off the boat to get home. These pit vipers are nasty little snakes and their bites can be fatal, although rarely. Even with no initial bad initial reaction, infection / necrosis is a huge worry because the venom can start killing the flesh around the bite, which can lead to gangrene (the venom of pit vipers kind of starts to pre-digest the prey to help the snake digest it later when swallowed whole).
My daughter was put on a drip with antibiotics to combat any infection and put under observation for potential infection/necrosis. Anti-venom was at hand but I'm not sure that it was administered. Apparently it can cause bad reactions so is only used if considered necessary, ie the wound is going bad. I'm a bit vague on this - I spoke to the doctor but couldn't really understand what she was saying.
It also seems (from Google) that around 30% of pit viper bites are 'dry bites', meaning that no venom is injected. The snakes like to conserved their venom if possible and also, as my daughter was running at the time, maybe no time for the snake to get a good bite in.
Thankfully all is now good. No sign of necrosis and even talk of going home, although an extra day of observation 'just in case' doesn't seem like a bad plan. Besides, the hospital knows there is insurance so I'm sure will try and get another day out of it, if possible.
The bite. The two fang marks on the side of my daughter's heel.
The ankle all swelled up.