Nathan Layton, bitten by black mamba snake, DDWHL
Rob Cibik
being bitten by black mamba snake
The (London, UK) Evening Standard
11.03.08
A British wildlife student has died after being bitten by a black
mamba snake in South Africa.
Nathan Layton, 27, was walking in long grass with a group of fellow
students and teachers when the deadly reptile struck.
He plunged into a coma and died within minutes as his girlfriend, 23-
year-old Laura Woolley watched in horror.
His aunt Jacqui Edwards, 46, said: "Within minutes he was dead.He was
genuinely a loving, caring person with such a warm heart."
Mr Layton had just enrolled on a course to study wildlife - paid for
out of compensation money he received after he nearly died in a car
accident.
He had dreamt of becoming a vet working in the South African bush,
like his hero Danny Trevanion in the ITV series Wild at Heart.
Mr Layton's parents Robert and Anne have arranged to have his body
flown back to Britain.
They declined to comment yesterday.
Miss Woolley, who lived with Mr Layton, and his girlfriend since the
age of 15 will fly home with the body.
Friends of Mr Woolley left tributes on a Facebook site yesterday.
The site had the slogan: "Nathan Layton. Born 12-03-1979 Died:
4-03-2008. Died doing what he loved. We love you buddy. You'll never
be forgotten."
A spokeswoman for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office said: "We are
aware of the death of a British national in South Africa and we are
providing consular assistance."
The black mamba can reach up to 12 ft in length and can crawl at 12mph
making it one of the fastest of all snakes.
The mamba's poison is the second deadliest and acts by destroying the
body's nerves.
While there is an antidote to its venom, it must be applied
immediately to be effective, and is not widely available in the rural
parts of Africa where it is most common.
The snakes, which are related to cobras, are called "black mambas" not
after their skin - which is a dark olive - but from the colour of the
inside of their mouth which they display when they feel threatened.
Black mambas tend to live in hollow insect mounds, abandoned burrows,
and rock crevices.
Unlike most other snakes mambas will strike repeatedly if cornered,
and have been reported to bring down a giraffe and a lion with their
venom.
Eugene Griessel
I doubt this person died of envenomation - probably died of shock.
The neurotoxic venom of the Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) just
does not act that fast. Many cases of medically observed mamba
envenomation have given us a detailed picture of the progress of the
envenomation - and in most cases symptoms will not begin to occur
before 25 to 30 minutes have passed.
Branch and Spawls say (Dangerous Snakes of Africa) the average time
for onset of symptoms is an hour. My vet got stitched by one a couple
of years back (owned by a friend of mine) while he was treating it for
a skin problem. He calmly got into his car and drove the 20 km to the
local hospital for treatment. Another case a dozen or more years ago
the mamba got the handler in the neck - more than enough time to drive
him to Groote Schuur for treatment which is more than 40 km from here.
If this patient had had a pressure bandage applied, been treated for
shock and given artificial respiration later on if needed he could
most probably have been gotten to a medical facility for treatment.
Even if they did have SAIMR polyvalent antivenom available (widely
available through pharmacies - unlike the report above states) it
would have been unwise to apply it if hospital was only a few hours
away. Anaphylactic shock from the antivenom kills a percentage of
people to whom it is administered - so it's best done in a medical
facility.
To conclude Branch and Spawls say: "...death is unusual for those
cases reaching hospital within a few hours of being bitten ...".
However shock is a big killer in all snakebite events, even if the
biter is a harmless species and must always be treated for.
In cases where envenomation kills it does so because respiration has
failed. Mouth to mouth would keep the person alive. There is a case
of one of our snakepark curators, who is wildly allergic to anitvenom,
who was bitten by a black mamba and who survived without any
treatement other than an artifical respirator. When he came out of
his coma, about a week afterwards, he had suffered no ill effects and
was discharged from hospital within an hour of recovering
conciousness.
Eugene L Griessel
Patriotism - the arrogant blind unthinking adherence to intangible
ideals as expounded and manipulated by the current regime.
- I usually post only from Sci.Military.Naval -
Kenny McCormack
Rob Cibik <lcp...@hotmail.com> wrote:
...
>Miss Woolley, who lived with Mr Layton, and his girlfriend since the
>age of 15 will fly home with the body.
Sounds like a full house.