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Dad Left Fighting For His Life After Bite From UK's Only Venomous Snake

Dad Left Fighting For His Life After Bite From UK's Only Venomous Snake

Snake in the grass.

Michael Minay

Michael Minay

In Britain, when going for a stroll in the park, the last thing you expect is to end up in hospital after a venomous snake bite. That's something that happens in countries like Australia, right?

Well, 27-year-old Josh Rose was faced with such an experience when he took his kids, Sebastian, two, and Lincoln, three, for a picnic on Saturday.

The Twickenham dad spotted a snake climb into the undercarriage of Lincoln's pram and was subsequently bitten, on his right index finger, by the giant adder when he tried to remove it.

Josh, who was also with his sister and brother-in-law, went into anaphylactic shock within minutes.

"The weather was nice so we thought we'd have a day out," Josh told LADbible.

"I was just chilling, lying on the grass, and my son was asleep in his pram. There were some dry leaves on the floor, I heard them moving and thought it was a rat or something."

Credit: Instagram

That rat turned out to be an adder, the only venomous snake in Britain.

"I didn't even think it was poisonous, I tried to shoo it away, but it turned and bit me straight away.

"Instantly I knew something was wrong. I felt my watch go tight, within in two minutes I was paralysed and was sick.

Josh mentioned that he was lying on the floor, unable to move, but could hear everything going on around him.

While his family tended to him, a dog walker used a stick to move the adder away. The kind stranger, plus Josh's brother-in-law then removed Lincoln from the pram, put Josh in there and carried him out of the park to the main road for ambulance attention.

Josh added: "Once I was in the pram, the next I can remember was being in hospital. I was considered for life-support because my throat had closed."

Paramedics had to spend the best part of an hour thinning his blood and pumping him with adrenaline after his heart rate had slowed to just four beats-per-minute.

He's now on the mend to make a full recovery.

Credit: Instagram

"It'll take me a week or two to get back to normal," said Josh. "I'm tired all the time, and it's an effort at the moment. It feels like a prolonged hangover. My whole body hurts."

Josh has been placed on a course of antibiotics during his recovery, but revealed that it's put him off snakes for life.

"I don't like snakes now, I'm definitely staying away from them," he added.

The adder is Britain's only venomous snake, but a government website states that 'no one has died from adder bite in Britain for over 20 years' - Josh is clearly lucky not to become that first statistic.

The website continues to say to 'treat adders with respect and leave them alone.'

The NHS advises, in the incident of being bitten by a snake, that you remain calm, remove all jewellery and watches to avoid them cutting into the skin, and to keep the bitten part of your body as still as possible to prevent the venom spreading around the body.

Apparently, despite what can be shown in the media, you should not try to suck or cut the venom out of the blood.

A real snake in the grass. Josh was fortunate to have quick-acting family and friends around him.

Featured Image Credit: Instagram

Topics: London