Kella Buckland’s miraculous survival after king brown snake bite at Howard Springs Nature Reserve

“Mummy, I don’t want to die”: Mum tells terrifying story of how her four-year-old son nearly died after being bitten by a king brown snake at a popular reserve.

SOPHIE Buckland’s heart sank when she realised her four-year-old son Kella had been bitten by a deadly king brown snake at the Howards Springs Nature Reserve.

Emergency services were called to the popular family reserve after they received reports of a four-year-old being bitten by the deadly snake after midday on Tuesday.

Mrs Buckland saw her son quickly deteriorate as he started vomiting and turned grey.

“The odds were not in his favour but he is a Buckland as we like to say, so he’s a tough little thing,” she said.

“My dad’s visiting from Bribie Island, and we wanted to go to the sausage sizzle (at Howard Springs).

“Kella came to me and he said, ‘mum I’ve been bitten by a snake’ and I was surprised because we’ve lived in the rural area and my kids have their whole lives.”

Kella showed his mum the snake hole and she began to realise the deadly situation at play.

“He was very scared and he looked at me and he said ‘mummy, I don’t want to die, don’t let me die’,” she said.

“I was like, it’s all right, Kella you’re not gonna die.

“We started wrapping up his arm and then within a minute or two, he was vomiting, he was grey, he was looking around, but there was nothing in his eyes, he was not there and then he just passed out,” Mrs Buckland said.

“He was unconscious until the paramedics got there.

“Once we got to the hospital, we knew it was still going to be a pretty big fight to save him.

“By like 3.30pm they had the all clear that it was king brown snake, so they gave him the anti-venom.

“They had to watch him because there’s all these other risks affiliated with giving a child of that age and size, antivenom.”

Mrs Buckland said she knew as soon as she saw the bite marks that her son was in trouble.

“At the time when I rang the ambulance I was so flustered that somebody had to take the phone off me because I couldn’t even remember my own mobile number,” she said.

“There was absolutely nothing I can do to help him and as a mum feeling that helpless and having to put my trust into people knowing this is a snake bite, not a broken arm or something.

“I know that someone of his age, his size, they don’t survive snake bites, even adults don’t survive the king brown bites.

“My little boy surviving that, like that makes me feel proud.”

Mrs Buckland described Kella as the epitome of a Territory kid, with dreams to meet the Territory’s very own Matt Wright.

“They love everything dangerous,” she said.

“They love everything animals.

“Their favourite man in the world is Matt Wright.”

Mrs Buckland hopes more awareness is raised of the dangers of snakes in family reserves.

“They’re just Territory kids and that’s another thing it could have happened to me, It could have happened to anyone,” she said.

“It wasn’t at my house, it was at a reserve.

“Not only that, but what to do in a situation like that, how to apply first aid, most people don’t even know how to wrap a wound.”

Kella was discharged for hospital on Wednesday, but is still feeling sick from the incident.

“It’s a side effect of the venom or the antivenene that he’s going to be a little bit fluey probably a bit dizzy,” Mrs Buckland said.

“He’s got to keep his fluids up.

“But he’s pretty much back to his cheeky little self.”