Farmer flown to hospital after being bitten by deadly snake

IT WAS a case of wrong place, wrong time for a Gayndah citrus grower who was bitten by a snake. FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED.

​The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue crew said Ms Robinson was in good spirits for her flight to Bundaberg Hospital. (Picture: LifeFlight)

MONDAY afternoon quickly took a turn for the worse when a Gayndah citrus farmer was bitten on the foot by a venomous black snake.

Emma Robinson said she was rushed to Gayndah Hospital at around 12:30pm, before being flown by RACQ LifeFlight to Bundaberg Hospital for further monitoring.

"I was trying to not make much of a fuss, but a lot of fuss got made in the end," Ms Robinson said.

"I was just changing irrigation timers and I was standing over a hole and the snake must've been in the hole, I was on the phone at the time and I felt something on my foot."

Ms Robinson noticed the snake was a black snake but wasn't sure if it had bitten her.

"I knew I had contact with the snake because I felt it, but I thought maybe it just sort of touched me and then I recognised within five minutes that I didn't feel right," she said.

"So I called my friend who is a nurse and she said to call the hospital."

Ms Robinson was taken via ambulance to the Gayndah Hospital where they assessed the situation.

"When I got to the hospital my eye started drooping and I had nausea and headaches, which are early signs of snake bite," she said.

The staff decided to give the antivenom to Ms Robinson at Gayndah, to avoid any in-flight problems.

"None of the people there had experience with it and so they were quite nervous, their policy in Gayndah is to not give antivenom," she said.

"They prefer it done in a big centre because you can have an anaphylactic reaction to it.

"I was a bit concerned."

Ms Robinson said she was getting "heaps of attention" as there were at least eight people in the room where they administered the antivenom.

"I did actually had some sort of reaction a bit after the antivenom," she said.

"I had that real extreme stomach pain and vomiting."

Ms Robinson is "very grateful" she had the antivenom quickly, otherwise the outcome could've been different.

"If you don't get antivenom within six hours they could have to amputate," she said.

Ms Robinson is currently recovering in the emergency ward at Bundaberg Hospital, waiting on the results of her blood clot test.

"It's all about the clotting results, they want it to get back to normal and it has been coming down since 11 o'clock last night," she said.

"I'm just waiting for the results to come back to see if its come down significantly enough.

"It would be nice to get out, it's really not nice being in an emergency ward."

Ms Robinson is still experiencing nausea, headaches and slight pain in her foot, but she is thankful to the LifeFlight crew and hospital staff.

"They were really fabulous every step of the way," she said.

Ms Robinson said her "adventurous" afternoon was surprising as she isn't normally scared of snakes.

"They don't want to be anywhere near me, but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," she said.

"I'm definitely going to fill in this big hole I've got."

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