Surrey man may lose finger after pet cobra bites him

A man in Surrey, B.C., who may lose his finger after being bitten by his pet cobra,is calling for a change in medical policy so antivenin is readily available.

Jason Hansen told CBC News Tuesday that the five-year-old snake, named Eve, reached up and bit his finger when he changed the pet's tank last Thursday.

The bite was dry and no venom was released, but the neurotoxins in the snake's saliva caused serious tissue damage, he said.

"It's painful like a gunshot wound," Hansen said.

He said his finger turned black after being bitten and his whole arm is swollen to nearly three times its normal size.

After nearly a week in hospital and after undergoing surgeries on his hand, Hansen said his condition continues to worsen.

"I think I have a 50-50 chance of losing my finger," he said. "It burns. It throbs constantly unless I'm given medication."

Hansen complained that the Surrey Memorial Hospital doesn't carry antivenin for cobra bites. When his friend provided doctors with five doses of antivenin developed by another friend, doctors refused to administer it, he said.

"I had it flew in myself from a private collector up north," saidHansen's friend, Dalvin Corrigal."They [doctors] would not believe that it was indeed [antivenin]."

The B.C. Poison Control Centre said cobra bites in the province are extremely rareand antivenin isexpensive and has a short shelf life.

"If we needed exotic antivenin, we would get in from either Alberta or from Seattle. Those will be two closest locations," said the centre's program supervisor Debra Kent.

She said using antivenin from an unknown source may have caused more damage because an allergic reaction can be deadly.

Gary Oliver, an expert in snakes, said this latest incident demonstrates the need for government regulation on prohibiting poisonous cobras from being kept as pets.

"They shouldn't be in homes unless the person is qualified and gone through some form of certification and it's all registered," he said.

Hansen said he shouldn't be blamed for keeping a highly poisonous animal as a petand likens his cobra to a pitbull.

He added that he wants to keep his pet.