Woman lucky to be alive after being bitten by UK's only venomous snake

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A woman said she is lucky to be alive after being bitten by Britain's only venomous snake, leaving her hospitalised. Beau Avis was wearing her sandals while walking her dog Bonnie on a country lane earlier this week when an adder sunk its teeth into her ankle.

The attack sent the 26-year-old into anaphylactic shock within minutes.Beau, from Essex, was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors, by chance, had anti-venom to hand, reports the Mirror.She said: "I was put into resus and was drifting in and out of consciousness.

I didn't have any control over any aspect of my body. It was truly terrifying. "I'm really lucky, because I was told a lot of hospitals don't tend to hold anti-venom but this one did.

The consultant had to ring the Poisons Information Service to find out what dose was needed." PR worker Beau was given morphine and held at Queen's Hospital overnight, but when her leg began to swell to "double the size", doctors had to administer a second dose of the antidote and kept her in for another day."It was like acid being poured over your legs," she added.While adders are the only poisonous snake in the UK, incidents of the reptiles biting are only about 50-100 per year, with the majority (70%) of these not resulting in serious injury.But Beau, who is now recovering from the attack but still struggling to walk and experiencing agonising pain, has shared her story to raise awareness of what to do in the rare scenario a person is bitten.