this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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It doesn't depend on knowing the type of snake though.
Every hospital I've ever heard of have detection kits that can tell them exactly what anti-venom you need without needing to get closer to the snake that bit you.
You can bring the snake in, but that's just going to delay your care as a bunch of untrained doctors and nurses try to figure out what to do with a venomous snake in their emergency room.
There's less than 5 snake bite deaths a year, and most of those are due to delayed care, none are due to "didn't know the snake"
Why? You've literally just heard exactly why it is worse to do so. It doesn't help. It only hinders, and it means more people had to be put at risk. You are more likely to die by bringing the snake than by not bringing it. And either way you aren't very likely, so there is no need to take the risk, or delay going to the hospital longer to bring the snake which will delay you even more once you get to the hospital since the hospital doesn't need it and dealing with it costs time.
They don't know what snake it is by looking at it any more than you do. And even if you tell them what snake you think it is, they can't go by that. They will just run the test that tells them definitively anyway. Since getting it wrong is not worth saving the time or money of skipping that test. And while the hospital staff are heroes, they aren't the kind of heroes that want "relatively" secured snakes hanging around them. It will absolutely slow things down, not only for you, but for anyone else trying to receive timely care at that hospital. And that's best case scenario, it'll really slow things down if the snake manages to get out of whatever you caught it in. Keep in mind they are strong enough to open tupperware and while they are bad at getting out of bags, it isn't impossible for them to do so.
Kill the snake first, got it.
While I'm pretty sure at this point you must be joking, I'm going to be a buzzkill and take it as serious anyway. Because this can be important. Bringing the snake, alive or dead, is more likely to cause your death and will do nothing to increase your odds of survival, do not bring the snake, alive or dead.