# King Cobra bite



## BeautifulLittleWeirdo (Apr 18, 2009)

I kinda need your help, guys 

Thing is... I'm writing a story in which the main character gets bitten by her king cobra, and I wanted to know what it feels like. Does it sting, burn, what? Have you ever been bitten?

Please be descriptive  Thanks!


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

BeautifulLittleWeirdo said:


> I kinda need your help, guys
> 
> Thing is... I'm writing a story in which the main character gets bitten by her king cobra, and I wanted to know what it feels like. Does it sting, burn, what? Have you ever been bitten?
> 
> Please be descriptive  Thanks!


Hehe, i dont think whose been bitten is alive  Good luck with your results :no1:


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## Ferretboy (May 24, 2010)

Man survives king cobra bite, but snake dies

"Harrison's symptoms included blurred vision, problems with numbness in his face, difficulty moving his tongue, severe headache and crushing chest pain, Gold said."


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## kelboy (Feb 10, 2009)

MagicSqueak said:


> About 5 years ago Gaza
> 
> Like i'd been bitten by a king cobra :whistling2:
> 
> ...


http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/snake-pictures/525253-new-snake-3.html#post6373524


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## abadi (Jul 25, 2010)

Liquii said:


> Man survives king cobra bite, but snake dies
> 
> "Harrison's symptoms included blurred vision, problems with numbness in his face, difficulty moving his tongue, severe headache and crushing chest pain, Gold said."


I guess im wrong then :blush::blush:


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## Victor Creed (Aug 25, 2010)

abadi said:


> Hehe, i dont think whose been bitten is alive  Good luck with your results :no1:


Man, I forget the dudes's name, maybe "George something" but he worked at the Miami Serpentarium and was bitten over 135 times including a 12 foot King Cobra they called "Super-Cobra" cuz it produced way more venom than any other King they had and he survived....AGAIN, and I think they were treating it with Tiger Snake venom. he was back in there milking snakes again before he even fully recovered. I was always amazed by that dude, but i swear he had a death-wish or something.

Nevermind, diffferent guy...the dude I was thinking of was named "William E. "Bill" Haast "

Full story: 

"The Serpentarium opened at the end of 1947, still not completed. For the first five years Bill, Clarita and Bill Jr. were the only staff. Bill Jr. eventually left, having lost interest in snakes, but not before he had been bitten four times by venomous snakes. Haast constantly improved the Serpentarium. By 1965 the Serpentarium housed more than 500 snakes in 400 cages and three pits in the courtyard. Haast was extracting venom 70 to 100 times a day from some 60 species of venomous snakes, usually in front of an audience of paying customers. He would free the snakes on a table in front of him, then catch the snakes bare-handed, and force them to eject their venom into glass vials with a rubber membrane stretched across the top.

Soon after opening the Serpentarium Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes, a practice called mithridatism. In 1954 Haast was bitten by a common, or blue, krait. He at first hoped that his immunization to cobra venom would protect him from the krait venom, and he continued with his regular activities for several hours. However, the venom eventually did affect him, and he was taken to a hospital where it took him several days to recover. A krait anti-venom was shipped from India, but when it arrived after a 48-hour flight, Haast refused to take it.

Haast received his first cobra bite less than a year after he started his immunization program. During the 1950s he was bitten by cobras about twenty times. His first King cobra bite was in 1962. Haast has also been bitten by a green mamba. On several occasions Haast has donated his blood to be used in treating snake-bite victims when a suitable anti-venom was not available.

In 1949 Haast began supplying venom to a medical researcher at the University of Miami for experiments in the treatment of polio. The experiments gave encouraging results, but were still in preliminary clinical trials when the Salk polio vaccine was released in 1955.

Haast's hands have suffered venom-caused tissue damage, culminating in the loss of a finger following a bite from a Malayan pit viper in 2003. As a result of the damage, Haast no longer attempts to handle venomous snakes. As of 2008 he continues to have his wife inject him with small amounts of snake venom."


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## Snakes Incorporated (Jun 27, 2006)

I got tagged by a Cape Cobra some years back. In my opinion the King Cobra and Cape Cobra venoms have some similarities. If this is true I can assure you that the venom burns like blazes in the area of the bite.


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