Brown snake bite survivor Tony Harrison reveals the scariest two moments as he feared for his life

A snake catcher who miraculously survived a bite from a deadly eastern brown has revealed exactly what he went through. VIDEO

A snake catcher has described how he thought he could be farewelling his family for the last time as he was loaded into an ambulance after being bitten by a highly venomous eastern brown.

Tony Harrison, who owns Harrison’s Gold Coast Snake Catcher, was bitten by the snake while on a job at a home at Stockleigh on October 22.

At the time, doctors believed he might not make it, but – in an extraordinary turnaround – he is out of hospital and on the mend despite still suffering some symptoms.

Mr Harrison and the three people who came to his rescue have told how their lunch plans saved his life.

Tony Harrison, who almost died after being bitten by an eastern brown snake. Picture, John Gass

Mr Harrison’s wife Brooke said they had planned to go out with OzCapture Snake Relocations owner Glenn Lawrence and snake catcher Ayla Manson when they got the call to retrieve two eastern browns that were mating, so they all went together.

“If we didn’t have Glenn and Ayla there, that’s the difference between what happened with Tony surviving this,” Mrs Harrison said. “We were so lucky to have the extra people.”

As soon as he was bitten, Mr Lawrence jumped to Mr Harrison’s rescue, bandaging him up as Ms Manson prised the snake from his hand, while another person called triple-zero.

Ayla Manson helped save Tony Harrison's life after the snake bite. Picture: John Gass

Mr Harrison, who still suffers vertigo and fatigue after the bite, said he was only bitten because when he approached the snake he was focused on live-streaming it for his social media followers. He said he also didn’t follow his golden rule – “If you can’t see his head, don’t touch his tail”.

“I could feel my chest tightening, I couldn’t breathe properly, started coughing uncontrollably. I knew I was envenomated,” Mr Harrison said.

Snake catcher Tony Harrison in hospital after he was bitten by an eastern brown, pictured with son Jensen. Photo: Supplied.

The innocuous-looking bite mark. Photo: Supplied.

“The two scary parts had been being put in the ambulance and saying goodbye to (my) family because I thought I might not see them again – that experience is one I don’t ever want to experience again.

“But then the paralysis kicked in when you can’t swallow, it made me too scared to drink water or have food. I couldn’t speak. If I wanted to talk I had to hold … at least one eye open. My eyes are going different directions, and my fingers wouldn’t work … It was bloody horrible, it went on for days.”

Glenn Lawrence from Harrison's Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher. Photo: Supplied.

Doctors were concerned Mr Harrison wouldn’t make it because he was bitten 20 years ago, went through “20 vials of antivenene”, and is now hypersensitive to it. He has been bitten five times by venomous snakes but only envenomated twice.

Tony Harrison, Jensen Harrison age 8 and Brooke Harrison with a Black Headed Python. Picture, John Gass

“The first one hit me hard, hit me fast and disappeared fast and 26 hours later I was catching snakes again,” he said. “This one, here we are coming up to the second week and I’ve still got vertigo, I’m weak as, and tired very quickly. The effects of this one took 11 hours to kick in, it didn't hit me like a sledgehammer, it was a creeper, then over a period of three days, it got worse.”

He said his recovery this time around had been a long and scary journey.

Emotions were high and everyone was running on adrenaline when the other catchers came to his rescue.

“I just wanted to cry,” Ms Manson said. “But I had to push that all aside … just focusing on what I can do to be helpful there, which was grabbing the snake off Tony.

“It was a terrifying moment … it was very upsetting, it’s very shocking, it’s not something you can ever plan for.”

Tony Harrison with a black headed python snakes. Picture: John Gass

The bite and rescue unfolded in front of Mr Harrison’s son Jensen. Mrs Harrison said she was thinking: “I’m going to end up alone with my kid”.

“Glenn drove me and Jensen to the hospital because I didn’t want to put Jensen in the car in case something happened there,” she said.

“You can imagine a kid turning around and realising that he might lose his dad … I can’t really sort of explain what happened, but no words were spoken between all of us. We just looked at each other. And we just knew what to do.”