Working in rural areas, Neville Joppich always knew snake bites were a real risk.
The Beachport resident and owner of a fencing and contracting business has had many close calls over the years at work, and knew if the worst was to happen he would have to seek help in a hurry.
Neville Joppich believes it was a brown snake that bit him. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)
When bitten by a snake earlier this month, he wasn’t at work but was doing odd jobs, and stepped directly onto the reptile after getting out of his ute.
According to Mr Joppich, the bite was relatively painless and felt like a small scratch.
“I may not have even thought it was a snake [bite] if I didn’t actually see the snake,” he said.
“There was no real pain.”
And it would be a long wait before Mr Joppich felt the pain of the venom.
Delayed reaction
With the help of his wife Sharon, Mr Joppich did all the right things, wrapping and immobilising the limb and calling an ambulance.
Just days after the snake bite, the puncture wounds were no longer visible. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)
Initial tests detected no venom in his blood, so the incident was assumed to be a dry bite, without any venom transfer.
He stayed in hospital overnight for observation. Then, over 15 hours after the bite took place, the venom finally hit.
“The bite zone got really, really tender and I felt it … sort of moving up my leg,” Mr Joppich said.
Hospital staff quickly administered antivenom, and Mr Joppich made a full recovery.
But the delayed reaction was not what he was expecting.
“It was surprising,” Mr Joppich said.
“You watch things in movies and you think its an instant reaction.”
Dr Geoffrey Isbister said only around 10 per cent of people who report snake bites actually have had venom enter their system. (ABC News)
Unusual case
Clinician researcher in clinical toxicology at Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital Geoffrey Isbister said such a long delay was surprising.
“That’s very unusual,” he said.
“Any sort of envenoming effect will be detectable usually within six hours of a bite in most cases and antivenoms need to be given within three hours.”
His advice was to never assume a snake bite was a dry bite.
“It is not an ideal term because we never really know if that’s the case,” he said.
“There are thousands of suspected snake bites across Australia each year, but of those, probably only 100 to 150 cause envenoming.”
Dr Isbister said it was possible not to feel a snake bite.
Sharon Joppich and her husband are now selling bite kits a the post office they run. (Supplied: Sharon Joppich)
“With brown snakes, they have very small fangs, so you can potentially not even notice the bite from a brown snake and also not see any bite marks that have significant effects,” he said.
The incident has been a timely reminder to the local community that snake season is here.
Neville and Sharon Joppich also operate the local post office, and the incident prompted them to start selling snake kits, at cost, to the local community.
“We’ve had to order more because of all the demand,” Ms Joppich said.
“Everyone is just making sure they are ready now, after hearing Neville’s story.”
