6-year-old girl dies from snake bite more than a week after treading on reptile

A six-year-old girl has died after being bitten by a brown snake in Australia. The youngster and her family were reportedly unaware she had been bitten until it was too late to save her life. She was bitten on Friday, February 5 near Walgett, around 400 miles (650km) north-west of Sydney, and was taken to a local hospital when she was almost comatose.

I believe the family didn’t know she’d been bitten and, by the time they’d realised, she was comatose.

Walgett Shire deputy mayor Jane Keir

Doctors gave her anti-venom before she was flown to Sydney Children’s Hospital on life support. However, her condition deteriorated and she was transferred back to Walgett Hospital where she died on Saturday. It is understood the youngster trod on the snake at the family home when she was bitten. There are about 3,000 snakebite cases in the country each year, with 300 to 500 needing anti-venom treatment. Only an average of two a year prove fatal, official figures show.

brown snake