Dad clearing side of highway rushed to hospital after venomous snake bites him

26 July 2023 , 15:30

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Warren Soulsby was clearing a section of a highway when he was struck by a snake

A dad was rushed to hospital after a venomous snake snoozing in a beer bottle bit his finger causing the blood to curdle.

Warren Soulsby, who spent three nights in hospital being treated with anti-venom, says he initially thought it was a thorn, when he was clearing overgrown bushes close to a highway.

But Warren, 25, soon realised he had disturbed the hibernating adder when he flung the glass beer bottle he was in, to the side to avoid shattering it with his petrol strimmer.

The UK's only venomous snake clamped down on Warren's finger as it shot out, mid-air, desperate to make it's escape.

Warren, who works as a highway maintenance worker, operating on a stretch of the A1 in Coldingham, Borders in Scotland started feeling light-headed, dizzy and sick and went to his van to get a drink.

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Doctors told Warren that his blood had literally curdled after the strike by the UK's only venemous snake

His colleague noticed two puncture marks that kept bleeding on Warren's hand and insisted that he go to hospital, reports the Daily Record.

Doctors ran tests that revealed his blood was twice the viscosity it should be and hooked him up to an IV.

Antivenom was ordered and had to be sped to Edinburgh from Manchester by a team on motorbikes. Following a 72-hour hospital stay that involved two doses of antivenom, painkillers and anxiety medication, Warren was discharged with no long-term effects.

After his ordeal in February last year, Warren is now urging people to stick to established paths in grassy areas and give the slithering critters a wide berth to avoid the same fate.

Warren, from Scotland, said: "When I saw two puncture marks dripping with blood, I didn't automatically think 'snake' because why would I? We're in Scotland.

"So I got the shock of my life when I realised I'd been bitten - and that it was venomous too. It's a crazy story to tell and sometimes I have to whip out the pictures of my hand to get people to believe me.

"I suppose I deserved it, I woke one up during hibernation and it was really cranky - we've all been there. I worked for the incident support unit on the highway maintenance.

"We were called to go down there because the bushes and shrubbery had overgrown the street and speed limit signs. I was down there with my petrol strimmer to go round the signs and take down the shrubbery and there was a glass beer bottle.

"Because the strimmers are so strong you just toss them aside so you don't smash them. I picked it up by the neck, the bottle was half a foot in the air because I was just going to toss it down the hill, and then I felt a sharp pain in the side of my hand.

"At first I thought it was off a thorn bush so I didn't think anything of it until I started walking back to the van and I started feeling dizzy and feeling sick."

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Warren spent three nights in hospital being treated with anti-venom

Warren adds: "It was my left hand, there were two puncture marks with blood dripping from both of them. When you get that in Scotland you don't look at that and think 'snake'.

"I never realised it was hibernating season for adders so I think I've disturbed the adder - it's obviously been getting the heat in there from the sun through the bottle.

"Because I picked it up by the bottle neck, it's obviously seen this movement and that's when it jumped out [and] latched - it wasn't even a second. It was just like a nip and then it just slithered away into the bushes. I woke one up and it was really cranky, we've all been there."

Assuming he'd merely been spiked by a thorn, Warren meandered over to his van to grab a drink but started to feel unwell minutes later. A co-worker noticed the bleeding puncture wounds and, seeing how ill he became so quickly, insisted he go to hospital. Driven to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by a work pal, Warren said tests revealed his blood was 'a bit out of sorts'.

Warren said: "I started to feel sick and dizzy three to five minutes [after the bite] it wasn't long at all. I went back to the van to go and get a drink. When I got to the van I had to stop at the side and throw up.

"The colleague I was with at the time phoned the boss and said 'Warren's not right here, something's happened'. I had to stop two times on the way to hospital to be sick.

"The doctors did a blood test and within 10-15 minutes they said 'your blood is a bit out of sorts'. They said my blood was twice as thick as it should be as there's some kind of venom in there.

"I was stunned, this was the first time a snake had been mentioned by doctors. They hooked me up to an IV instantly. They had four motorbikes brought up from Manchester with the antivenom for the European adder.

"I was on a few painkillers and diazepam to keep me relaxed because I was panicking even though they told me it wasn't deadly because I was healthy. The way I was feeling was horrible."

After spending 72 hours in hospital, Warren was discharged and after spending another day at home resting was back at work on Monday.

Warren said: "My advice to people going into grassy areas is to stay on a trail already made because adders don't like being disturbed.

"If they're disturbed and they can get away freely they will go away. they won't go for you. The only reason this one went for me is that it only had one exit from that bottle and it just happened that my hand was in the way of that exit."

Rory Cassidy