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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

Brit bitten by highly venomous snake as Australians slam him for making simple mistake

A Brit has been branded careless after being bitten by the lethal brown snake while walking barefoot in Australia.

Ben was holidaying on Fraser Island, Queensland, with his partner Georgia when they decided to hire a car and do some off-road driving.

They spent the first day travelling along a beach in their pink 4-wheel-drive before setting up to camp overnight, sharing their sleeping quarters with "a couple of dingoes and a few crabs".

The following morning, Ben launched his drone to capture the stunning scenery, but it crashed into a tree growing at the top of a sand dune, which was surrounded by long grass.

As he waded through the grass, he felt something snap at his ankle.

Recalling the attack on TikTok, he said: "Right, so I just got bitten by a venomous snake in Australia. Quick story time for you.

"I had to walk back down through this patch of grass and I stepped on something dark and I felt something hit my ankle.

"I got back to the truck, saw the fang marks and then it sort of sunk in what had happened. We had no signal."

Puncture wounds on Ben's foot (geebeetv/Tiktok)
TikToker Ben hooked up to machines after being attacked by a snake on an Australian beach (geebeetv/Tiktok)

After bandaging his leg, a passing tourist helped to rush him down to the beach, where he was finally able to get phone reception.

In the video, a helicopter is seen landing and picking Ben up.

He said: "Not too bad though, I got a free helicopter sight-seeing tour of Fraser Island."

Towards the end of the clip, Ben is seen lying on a hospital bed, hooked up to monitoring machines.

Ben is thought to have suffered a dry bite, which happens when the snake fails to release venom during a strike.

Though painful, they don't pose further risk of death or poisoning and rarely need additional treatment.

Australians on social media said he could have avoided the painful holiday saga by following some basic rules.

One said: "From an Aussie: don't walk in the bushes."

"Bare foot in the towns, boots in the scrub," another chimed in.

He was taken to hospital in a helicopter (geebeetv/Tiktok)
The patch of grass where Ben encountered the snake (geebeetv/Tiktok)

A concerned third user said: "This could have easily been avoided.

"Y'ou made it to hospital so was probably a warning bite with no venom."

Many wondered which type of snake it was.

"Most likely a brown," one said.

"We were the camp next to him, same night there was a 2.5m brown in the bathroom."

Another said: "Either dugite or brown considering it was at the beach."

The brown snake is a fast-moving and famously bad-tempered serpent, which is responsible for more deaths in Australia each year than any other group of snakes.

They are ranked as the second-most toxic land snake in the world behind fellow Aussie snake, the inland taipan.

Their unique venom leads to paralysis and stops the bloods ability to clot, causing victims to bleed to death.

Victims can collapse within a few minutes, not long enough for the many antivenom doses needed to reverse its effects.

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