Daniel Case, 45, from Tintagel, north Cornwall, was hospitalised after a two-foot adder bit his foot. The snake had been hiding underneath his sofa in his rural cottage.
On June 25, Case got up from the sofa when he felt a “shooting pain” in his right foot. He looked down to see a “whopping great adder” latched onto the side of his foot. The wild animal was fully grown with “very solid black and green” scales.
Case was rushed to hospital where he was given antivenom and stayed overnight after having a seizure.
Remote Cottage Encounter
Case, whose cottage is “very remote”, built into a valley and surrounded by gorse hedges, said: “It took about three or four seconds to compute what had happened - and I looked down - and there was a whopping great adder. It was probably close to a few feet long, it was a big one. It was hanging off the side of my foot, essentially. And so I sort of flicked my foot, and it went off.”
He added: “It was incredibly painful. It’s right on the side of my foot, you can still see it now. The two puncture wounds from the snake.”
The reptile then slithered under his sofa as he ran to call an ambulance. “The whole time the snake's still in my front room somewhere under the sofa. I didn’t know where it was,” he said. He grabbed a shirt and wrapped it around his foot and leg to slow the venom.
Emergency Response
Case, who owns bodyboarding and fishing business Salty Fins Kernow, called his friend, a lifeguard and paramedic, who came immediately. An off-duty paramedic also drove to his cottage as no ambulances were available. The off-duty paramedic said he needed to be blue-lighted to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske, but on the way they encountered another ambulance going to Derriford, to which he was transferred.
As he left, his friend stayed to search for the snake. By this point, Case's symptoms were “very, very painful” and he was given Oramorph, a type of liquid morphine.
Hospital Treatment
At Derriford Hospital, Case waited in A&E and his condition worsened. He felt faint, sick, and his blood pressure was “very high”. Six hours after the bite, he was administered antivenom through a cannula at 8.30pm. But he reacted badly and had a seizure almost “as soon as the cannula came out”. The night included blood tests, a CT scan at 2am, and an X-ray to check for fangs. The X-ray was clean.
Case stayed at the hospital until 1pm the next day. He said: “It went from a nice day to feeling like I was in hell.”
Aftermath
When he got home, seal rescue services had retrieved the snake. Case said: “It had gone up onto my sofa and made itself comfy along the back wall between the sofa and the cool walls of the cottage. It makes me wonder, how long had it actually been in here. I could have been sitting on the sofa with it.”
On June 28, he returned to A&E due to ongoing heart palpitations and chest pain and was given antibiotics, but said “they didn’t make a difference”. His foot was “massive, it was like elephant man”. His doctor thought he may have developed compartment syndrome, as his foot was “turning purple” when he stood up. Tests ruled out compartment syndrome and a blood clot, but he still struggles with pain and swelling.
Case has since searched his property for adder eggs but found none. He says he is now very wary of snakes: “I'm scanning around the whole time, like if a leaf breezed past my foot, I'm jumping out of the way.” Despite shielding windows and doors with heavy fly netting, he added: “I’m very conscious of where I put my feet, even in the house at the minute.”
