Western Australian snake bite victim identified

The snake bite victim, mother to a three-year-old, was 31 weeks pregnant when she was bitten on the main street of a WA town.

Snake bite victim Sinita Martin. Picture: Facebook

Police have identified a heavily-pregnant woman who died after a suspected snake bite in the West Australian town of Meekatharra as 27-year-old Sinita Martin.

Ms Martin, who was 31 weeks pregnant, also had a three-year-old son.

Doctors at Meekatharra Hospital were unable to save the unborn baby.

It is understood Ms Martin recently moved to Meekatharra, 775 kilometres north-east of Perth, from Perth.

She was bitten outside her home on the town’s main street and appears to have suffered rapid collapse, which causes a cardiac arrest within 30 minutes to an hour of a snake bite.

She alerted family members, who called emergency services.

A St Johns Ambulance spokeswoman said officers began CPR on the woman and took her to the hospital, which is just minutes away from the house.

She was later pronounced dead.

A relative told The Australian today that Ms Martin’s mother Evelyn did not want to speak publicly about her daughter’s death.

“There are a lot of issues that she is dealing with right now,” the relative said.

The St Johns Ambulance spokeswoman said: “I can confirm that we had a crew attend the scene and a community paramedic as well.”

“The patient was a female aged in her 20s who had reportedly received a bite from an unknown venomous source.

“She was in cardiac arrest on arrival and the crews performed CPR and she was then transported to Meekatharra Hospital as a priority one (lights and sirens).”

A WA Police spokesman said a report would be prepared for the coroner.

The death comes only a month after a 24-year-old man died from a snake bite in Tamworth, in NSW, after his dog picked up a brown snake in its mouth.

It is believed the snake had been hissing in distress at the dog when the man grabbed it and was bitten hard on the hand.

Australian Venom Research Unit research fellow Timothy Jackson said if the woman was bitten by a snake and had died after rapid collapse, the most likely species respon­sible was the western brown snake.

Western brown snake. Picture: Chris Peberdy.

The brown snake has caused 23 of the 35 snake bite deaths in Australia recorded by the ­National Coronial Information Service between 2000 and 2016.

He said the woman’s pregnancy, which is associated with low blood pressure, might have complicated attempts to save her. “It’s a cardiovascular collapse so it’s a precipitous drop in blood pressure,” he said.

Dr Jackson said the Australian Venom Research Unit had previously raised concerns that some hospitals in regional areas did not have sufficient stocks of anti-venom. “It’s an expensive product, it’s often not required,” he said.

“It expires within three to four years, so there’s a suggestion that certain hospitals have chosen not to stock it. We don’t have a lot of snake bite deaths and one of the reason for that is we do have anti-­venoms, and historically they have been kept well stocked.”

However, Dr Jackson said, in cases of rapid collapse, CPR was more likely to save someone than anti-venom. “When someone is collapsing within an hour of the bite, having someone nearby — a friend, loved one or bystander — who is capable of performing CPR can be the difference between life and death.”

A West Australian Country Health Service spokeswoman said Meekatharra Hospital had sufficient stocks of anti-venom.