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An elderly Tasmanian farmer died after being repeatedly bitten by a 1.4-meter tiger snake that was still wrapped around his arm when help arrived.
Tiger snake Source: istock.com
Winston William Fish, 78, was found conscious and clutching the snake’s head with both hands on January 28 of this year, but died after being taken to hospital with bites to his hand and inner thigh.
Despite being treated with an antidote, Fish died two days after a multiple organ failure caused by the venom of the snake, a coroner concluded in a report published this week.
Fish had been herding sheep on his quad the day he was bitten, and neighbors found him after his dog returned to the farm, raising alarm.
The first person at the scene “saw that a snake was attached to his right hand, with Fish holding his head with both hands to squeeze it,” said coroner Olivia McTaggart.
“She saw that it had wrapped around Mr. Fish’s right arm up to his neck and his body was moving. At this time Mr. Fish was still conscious.”
One of the neighbors used a knife to cut off the head of the snake.
“(Mr. Fish) threw him a couple of feet away. I hit him on the head with the hoe to make sure he couldn’t bite anyone else,” another of the neighbors told investigators at the time.
The man said Fish was “pretty bad” and that his hand, one of the bite sites, had turned black.
A doctor and an ambulance arrived and Fish was subsequently airlifted from his property in central Tasmania to Hobart Hospital, where he died.
McTaggart could not determine the circumstances in which Fish encountered the snake, but noted that fatal bites are rare.
Despite a series of stings each year, Fish is Tasmania’s third known death since 1948.
The risk of being bitten is low, McTaggart said.
