Snake catcher Tony Harrsion reveals why he was bitten, health battle since

A well-known snake catcher who was bitten by an eastern brown snake has told how it all unfolded, what he did wrong in the lead-up and how it still impacts his health.

A well-known snake catcher who was bitten by an eastern brown snake has told how quick everything happened in “under a minute” and the lessons he learnt after he was discharged from hospital.

Harrison’s Gold Coast and Brisbane Snake Catcher owner Tony Harrison was bitten while attending a home at Stockleigh on Sunday October 22.

His wife, Brooke Harrison, told The Courier-Mail he was bitten while he had two eastern brown snakes in his hand.

On Saturday, Mr Harrison was discharged from hospital, almost a week after the incident and just days after he posted a video from his hospital bed, showing how ill he was, with his speech heavily slurred and his eyes barely open.

But on Saturday, Mr Harrison shared another video on social media, giving an insight into what happened on the day he was bitten and how it could have been avoided.

Mr Harrison said he would not have survived if it wasn’t for fellow snake catchers Glen and Ayla, who were with him at the time.

Tony Harrison in hospital.

After being discharged from hospital on Saturday.

“The way they handled the situation when I got bit, how fast Glen was and how fast Ayla was to grab the snake off me and how quick everything happened in under a minute and that I think was a big contributing factor to me making it out the other end,” Mr Harrison said.

“Glen was in tears literally and sweating, I could see the horror and the terror on Ayla’s face.

“Brooke was just holding her head in her hands and Jenen’s (his son) looking at all these adults going to defcon one and not understanding why.

“It was very traumatic for everyone.”

Mr Harrison said the incident happened because he got complacent and was worried about livestreaming the incident which he usually does at a lot of the jobs he goes to.

“I was more worried about the camera, more worried about what you were seeing,” he said.

“I was showing off because Glen was with me, I wanted him to see me catch two at once. I was going in too quickly.

“We do suffer from competitiveness, trying to get content on our page, trying to impress you.”

Gold Coast and Brisbane snake catcher Tony Harrison with wife Brooke and son Jensen. Picture: Nigel Hallett

But Mr Harrison said in the future it was important to just take a photo after he had caught the snake instead of trying to get the whole catch on camera.

“We need to worry about ourselves, not worry about the content, worry about the other things,” he said.

“We need to impress our kids that we are still there. We need to impress our wife with the house we still have.

“If I died ... Brooke can’t afford the $4000 a month for our hosue, we would have lost it.

“I’ve got Jensen and Brooke and all this empire I’ve built.

“I don’t want to lose that, over being a hero. At least I am standing up admitting to everyone that’s how I got bitten. It’s not the snake’s fault, it’s that I was being a hero.”

Mr Harrison said he had already taken extra steps to mitigate it from happening again by buying new uniforms with long sleeves.

“I think I wouldn’t have gotten bitten if my sleeves were down,” he said.

Despite being discharged from hospital, Mr Harrison said he still didn’t feel the best.

“Even though I’m home I’m really light-headed and I’ve got a problem with my sense of depth, my peripheral vision, my depth of perception,” he said.

“As I was being wheeled down the hallway, there were these stripes in the hospital.

“It scared the sh*t out of me because it looked like it was coming at me but it wasn’t, it was on the ground.

“When the nurse took me out in the wheelchair, there was black concrete going into white concrete, it was levelled, but it looked to me like a step and I thought she was driving over the edge and I sh*t myself.

“I’m still nowhere near 100 per cent.”

Originally published as Snake catcher Tony Harrsion reveals why he was bitten, health battle since