Mitchell : Can you explain the Queensland system for licensing and what you must do to become a licensed elapid owner ?
Nathan : In Queensland you need to have a few things to keep elapids . Firstly , you need a first aid certificate , which I already had for work . Then you need two references from qualified venomous keepers and to complete a venomous snake handling course . I think it could be stricter , but I ’ m a bit on the fence about that one . Making it stricter would probably push more people to keep elapids illegally ; I mean it happens a lot already and tighter rules could therefore mean a lot more bites .
Mitchell : For those who are not aware , would you explain how the bite occurred ? There seems to be some conflicting stories in the media and it would be great to hear your version of events ?
Nathan : So , it was a Sunday and I had a wedding in NSW on the Monday for my uncle . Sunday is feeding day for me and everything was due for a feed , but I also wanted to clean the enclosures before I left . I started to clean while I had a bucket of rats defrosting in the room ready to feed off afterwards . I had ‘ Fang ’ ( the Inland Taipan ) on the hook after I had cleaned his tank and I was putting him back in the enclosure when the snake in the tank above struck at the glass . I had a momentary break in concentration as I was readjusting my hand on the hook and Fang came back and bit me on the index finger . him down so he could drive me to the hospital . We were halfway there when they asked us to pull over and let the ambulance take us the rest of the way .
Mitchell : Can you walk us through the entire hospitalisation process from admission to discharge and what happened ?
Nathan : When I got to the hospital and told them I had been bitten by an Inland Taipan , they didn ’ t really believe me . I told them I was positive and there was no mistake , but they ran a venom detection kit to be sure which antivenom to use . About an hour and a half after the bite my vision started to go blurry , and then I got drowsy . Two hours after the bite is when it really hit ; I started to have muscle spasms and then a seizure . It was then when they put me into a coma . Just before that I called my dad to tell him I loved him and I was going to be alright . That was probably the toughest thing about it all . He ’ d just thought I ’ d gone to a mate ’ s house , and by the time he got to the hospital I was already in a coma .
When I woke up the first thing I was told by my little brother was that I was famous , and I was all over the
Mitchell : When the bite occurred what was your initial reaction ?
Nathan : After the bite happened I remained really calm , and I think that ’ s one of the things that helped save my life . I knew if I panicked the venom would have been going through my system a lot quicker . I put Fang back in his enclosure and then phoned an ambulance . On top of my tanks I had a first aid kit , so I applied a pressure bandage on my arm . One of my mates was with me and he started to panic , and I actually had to calm
Right : Nathan with ‘ Fang ’ the Inland Taipan . All images courtesy Nathan Checuti .
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