soldier dies from snake bite

ThomasH

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It does sound suspicious. Yeah I would like to know how many bites they found on the body, it just says "multiple". Getting bit more than once would be unusual but it happens. If there were 3 or more bites in the same area, that would really be a red flag to me. I've never kept many snakes at one time but I've played around with native snakes off and on for several years, I'm fairly certain I could get a snake to bite a dead body, esp. an A. piscevorus since they tend to stand their ground and not so quick to crawl off. But, that's all speculation, just not enough info, ...but even that's kind of weird, but then that's the media for ya too. Who knows...
Tissue tells you if the person was dead or alive when the initial wound occured. If the tissue is already dead when the wound occured a medial examiner would know.
 

ThomasH

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Totally untrue. As with all venom's from bees to our beloved scorpions and tarantulas, they can produce an allergic reaction as well as its common effects. The soldier could have very well had an allergic reaction to the venom. Soldiers are also trained to be able to recognize possible dangers in training grounds, from alligators to venomous snakes. So the soldier probably knew what it was and knew he was invenomated, maybe he thought he could just walk it off and make it back to camp to be treated. As for them finding the snake that did it i doubt that strongly myself. It has been known for the American military to cook up conspiracy theory's and this could very be one of them but do not say that there is no way that he could have died form tat bite cause there very well is ways he could have.
That is between extremely rare and unheard of from any Agkistrodon. The average snake bite death average is only .5% in the U.S. It would be extremely unlikely for someone to die from a large Crotalus much less a Cottonmouth. Cottonmouths are less potent and have less envenomation quantity. I have been around many past Agkistrodon bite victims. Many didn't even feel it was neccessary to go to the hospital and they didn't even face disfiguration. Others went to the emergency room and waited hours for their turn without facing ill effects. I have never heard of any one even facing aputation from an Agkistrodon even though they possess hemotoxic qualities. Much less an adult male instantly dying from one. http://www.toxinology.com/fusebox.cfm?fuseaction=main.snakes.display&id=SN0335
TBH
 

ThomasH

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A 13-month old, 39-inch male water moccasin with drained venom sacks was later found and killed.
I'm not sure I've ever heard of a 39 inch 13 month old. Especially in an area requiring brumation. In the zoo I volunteer at they have all three cottonmouth subspecies, a few specimens of each all adults and none of them are over three feet. I must have missed it, but where in the article did it say they killed it? Usually killing is common procedure for any animal that killed a person. Then they could have gotten an official length without using the "overestimation card."
 

UrbanJungles

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Totally untrue. As with all venom's from bees to our beloved scorpions and tarantulas, they can produce an allergic reaction as well as its common effects. The soldier could have very well had an allergic reaction to the venom.

This is totally untrue. There has never been a verifiable case of someone having "an allergic reaction" or dying directly as a result from anaphylactic reaction to spider venom. This is a myth.

It's hard to get bitten by a cottonmouth as they really give you ALOT of warning when you are nearby, many of the cottonmouths I've found in the wild have actually "Found me" first by flashing those big white mouths with an audible hiss.



 

crpy

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This is totally untrue. There has never been a verifiable case of someone having "an allergic reaction" or dying directly as a result from anaphylactic reaction to spider venom. This is a myth.

Whew, it took me a couple of reads to make sure you said spider venom:razz:
 

J_dUbz88

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Maybe a case has just not yet surfaced this dosent mean that it cant happen. A large number of people are deathly allergic to bees venom, my own grandfather included. Just because someone has not yet shown such a strong allergic reaction does not mean that it could not happen. Tarantulas are most certainly not as common as a bee, a large number of people do keep tarantulas and a larger number have them native to there area. Bees are very wide spread and thus more people have encountered a sting from them. Cotton mouths are the same not very wide spread and encountered by a large number of the public, and even though there are a large number of us on the boards we still do not make up a strong number in the population. So the severe allergic reaction in tarantula venom and cottonmouth may not be encountered as often but never say it cant happen.
 

J_dUbz88

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That is between extremely rare and unheard of from any Agkistrodon. The average snake bite death average is only .5% in the U.S. It would be extremely unlikely for someone to die from a large Crotalus much less a Cottonmouth. Cottonmouths are less potent and have less envenomation quantity. I have been around many past Agkistrodon bite victims. Many didn't even feel it was neccessary to go to the hospital and they didn't even face disfiguration. Others went to the emergency room and waited hours for their turn without facing ill effects. I have never heard of any one even facing aputation from an Agkistrodon even though they possess hemotoxic qualities. Much less an adult male instantly dying from one. http://www.toxinology.com/fusebox.cfm?fuseaction=main.snakes.display&id=SN0335
TBH
as for this i have no idea what you said here pertains to what i posted, i spoke of allergic reactions not some dyeing simple from the bite or needing an amputation, and i never said he instantly died, i believe i said "MAYBE he tried to walk it off."
 

Galapoheros

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I don't feel there's enough info in the story and the story might have gotten twisted around. Could be ligit or could be a military cover up ..all the way to a crooked forensic study ..told to blame snake bites. I would have to know more but right now, it's not enough.
 

UrbanJungles

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Maybe a case has just not yet surfaced this dosent mean that it cant happen. A large number of people are deathly allergic to bees venom, my own grandfather included. Just because someone has not yet shown such a strong allergic reaction does not mean that it could not happen. Tarantulas are most certainly not as common as a bee, a large number of people do keep tarantulas and a larger number have them native to there area. Bees are very wide spread and thus more people have encountered a sting from them. Cotton mouths are the same not very wide spread and encountered by a large number of the public, and even though there are a large number of us on the boards we still do not make up a strong number in the population. So the severe allergic reaction in tarantula venom and cottonmouth may not be encountered as often but never say it cant happen.
Every single one of these animals mentioned above have completely different venoms...it has nothing to do with how "common" they are. Please do some research on the topic.
 

ThomasH

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as for this i have no idea what you said here pertains to what i posted, i spoke of allergic reactions not some dyeing simple from the bite or needing an amputation, and i never said he instantly died, i believe i said "MAYBE he tried to walk it off."
I'm saying the U.S average snake bite death percentage is .5%. In other words 1 in 200 people bitten by snakes in the U.S die from the bite. Cottonmouths and other Agkistrodon aren't too potent, injection rates are moderate and when they do inject it is not too much venom. Walking it off may have an elevated effect but still wouldn't just kill him like that. Very few have ever died from Agkistrodon.
Most of the people that died from snake bite were from the genus Crotalus. In my state [VA] Copperheads are very common and Crotalus are rare, [We have the two ssp's of horridus.] we also have Cottonmouths in the extreme south. In our history 5 people have died from snake bites. All were Timber Rattler bites! Even though Agkistrodon bit many hundreds more people none died. It was all Crotalus bites. So your chance of dying in the U.S from an Agkistrodon bite would be under .1%.
TBH
 
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