DETROIT – A Michigan man continues to recover from a cobra bite that sent doctors scrambling to hunt down antivenom.
The man, 26, from Pinconning Township, Michigan, became nauseous and started vomiting about 20 minutes after his pet albino monocled cobra bit him the night of July 14. He initially was treated at a Bay City, Michigan-area hospital but then was airlifted to Detroit after he stopped breathing because his respiratory muscles became paralyzed, according to Detroit Medical Center officials. Pinconning Township is about 117 miles north of Detroit.
Toxicology experts at the hospital reached out to the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. Eight vials of antivenom were sent to Detroit Medical Center Harper Hospital and administered to the man shortly after his arrival.
"However, the generic antivenom, which covers many, but not all species of poisonous snakes, had little effect and the patient’s condition continued to worsen," Jason Barczy, the medical center's communications manager, said in an email.
Barczy said the man's family helped doctors identify the species of snake and in turn pinpoint the type of antivenom that was needed.
Monocled cobras are native to South and Southeast Asia, according to reptilesmagazine.com. Their deadly venom is one of the fastest-acting snake venoms in the world, the magazine said.
With the man's prognosis looking grim, medical center officials contacted the Miami-Dade County Venom Response Program in Florida the morning of July 15. Twenty vials of the appropriate antivenom were put on a commercial flight to Detroit and administered to the man via IV that afternoon.
The man remains hospitalized but is on the road to recovery, Barczy said, thanks to the efforts of medical professionals who may experience such an event only once in their careers.
"I talked to one of the directors of pharmacy who has been here 10 or 11 years, and she said it’s never really happened for her," he said. "Five cases like this might happen through the entire country in a given year."
Follow Ann Zaniewski on Twitter: @AnnZaniewski
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