Snake Bite Rescue
Snake Bite Rescue
With Army training under his belt and as an experienced outdoor recreation teacher, most would think that Michael Lane was prepared for anything he could encounter in the bush. With a steady diet of bushwalking 3 to 4 times a week, Michael thought he was prepared as well. However, when he set off on the Australian Alps Walking Track on the 12th of November, even Michael was unnerved by what happened.
After a late night out, he thought the fresh air would do him well and he set off with a plan to walk to Castle Hill, Booroomba Hill and then Booroomba Rocks. An avid bushwalker, Michael says he enjoys, "The closeness to nature and stepping outside of your normal routine in life to appreciate your surroundings. There is a different bond that people have when they are sitting around a campfire or on a bushwalk. Conversations are different. Insecurities are there as well. A tent made out of plastic is different than bricks and mortar."
After walking for a while on a day that was just like any other bushwalking day, Michael decided to sit down and take a break. He pulled his pack off and leaned back against a rock wall to snack on a mars bar. That's when he felt it. As Michael puts it, "You know when you bump into something and feel that sort of pressure? That's all it was at first. Then I saw a brown snake slither away. I took off my gators and there were two bloody punch marks. I had a bit of a panic. I think you are full of it if you say you're too experienced to panic."
When Michael realised he had been bitten by a snake, he immediately phoned "000" and tied his thermal pants around his leg as a tourniquet. The ACT Ambulance Officer he spoke to took down his coordinates and told him she would need to hang up to conserve his phone battery. She promised to call back in 5 minutes. Michael says, "She told me not to move, but the black ants were crawling up my leg towards the blood."
Once before, Michael was bushwalking with a mate near the coast who had to be airlifted. He remembered that they weren't able to fly his pack out because of the helicopter's weight constraints. "I was scared because the tent I had wasn't mine, it was my partner's. We got it from Sweden and I had a hard time getting it to use in the first place." Michael was getting disoriented and nauseated. The ACT Ambulance Officer at "000" had told him a road ambulance would be coming, but he could hear a helicopter and began to get confused.
As it turns out, Michael wasn't going crazy. The ambulance and helicopter arrived at nearly the same time. ACT Ambulance Service had dispatched both a road crew and the Snowy Hydro SouthCare helicopter to ensure someone would reach Michael as soon as possible. Despite his condition, the paramedics made quite an impression on Michael when the arrived. "They took my primitive little thermal pants off and put a real tourniquet on. It was so tight. The pain was immense so they gave me some morphine."
Michael says, "We have to acknowledge the work paramedics do. There is not enough recognition for helicopter crews either. They do a magnificent job and it often goes unreported. Unless it happens to you, you don't realise... An accident can happen at any time, you never know when you are going to need it."
After being transported to The Canberra Hospital by Snowy Hydro SouthCare, Michael spent the night there to make sure he wasn't experiencing any of the spontaneous bleeding that is typically caused by snake bites.
His experience has far from deterred Michael from his passion for bushwalking. He says, "I'll keep bushwalking - keep challenging myself and keep experiencing the unknown. At the same time you want to experience the uncertainty of nature, it wants to test you as well. You can't give it up…you just need to keep aware of your surroundings. In the future, I'll be a little more aware about where I'm going to stick my bum for morning tea."
