Woman bitten by UK's only poisonous snake thought she 'stepped in warm dog mess'
A woman tried to suck venom out of her toe after being bitten twice by the UK's deadliest snake - before hopping for a mile to get help.
Danielle Denton, 39, was walking barefoot along a cliff-top path carrying a large rubber ring that obscured her view of the path, when she feared she'd stepped in a pile of "warm" dog mess. Seconds later, she said she felt an intense 'stabbing' pain above her right little toe and realised what she'd actually stepped on was a sunbathing adder.
Horrified, the carer looked down and spotted two sets of bloody puncture marks and tried the "cowboy suck and spit" method to draw the poison out. But when that failed to do the trick, her leg started to balloon to double its size. She says she hopped and bum-shuffled her way back home a mile away before a neighbour drove her to hospital.
Doctors hooked her up to an anti-venom drip and she spent a week as an in-patient as her leg turned yellow. After spending three months unable to walk, Danielle can now get around but says she still has limited movement in her foot. After her ordeal in August, she is now urging anyone bitten to stay still, call for help and not attempt a DIY venom extraction.
Danielle, from Horton, near Swansea, Wales, said: "I had to hop a mile back. I did some shuffling on my bum because there were rocks. I was barefoot, because it was a hot day and I was only going to go swimming, and had a rubber ring in my hand. This adder was sunbathing on the path and they're quite camouflaged. I was just looking towards the path where I was going and not looking at the floor.
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She was walking barefoot (Kennedy News/Jeff Henry)
Her leg doubled in size (Kennedy News and Media)"I thought that I'd stood in poo because I felt the warmth and it was squidgy underneath my foot. As I thought 'eew poo', it [the snake] bit me on my right foot above my little toe. I could see blood and saw four puncture marks so it must have done it twice. It wasn't too happy about being stood on and slithered away into a bush as fast as it could.
"I was on my own and didn't know what to do, there's no signal here, so I tried to be a cowboy and suck it out of my own foot. It did taste nasty, I just spat it out. I didn't know what to do. I hopped back all the way which took me about an hour to hop back, that was the worst thing I could have done because I should have stayed still. I didn't realise how dangerous it was, I nearly died from it."
Six months on, Danielle is now urging anyone bitten by a snake to seek medical attention straight away. She said: "It's getting better now. Sometimes it gets stiff and my toes where I got bitten wont wiggle anymore. I'm not scared of snakes or spiders, I'm still not. I shouldn't have had a big rubber ring in my hand walking there. I should have been looking where I'm going.
"I won't be scared if I see one, I'll just let it go on its way. The snake was only doing it's thing wasn't it? I shouldn't have stood on it. If I was a snake and someone stood on me I would bite them. I want people to know to stay still, to phone for help and stay calm and get someone to come to you. Don't try to move your limb, it's better to stay still so you don't move the poison."
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