Snake Anti-Venom Uses in Emergency Medicine
Snakes are awesome creatures that are present nearly in all places around the world. Their presence is increasing in places where people live, which increases the risk of being threatened by people leading to snake bites. Some snakes don’t carry venoms, but a lot of them do and if a venom gets into the human blood it can cause life-threatening organs damage. The only way to cure this venom action is by anti-venom injection at the hospital, but that is not as easy as it sounds and not all hospitals carry all the specific equipment due to rare snakebite cases.
Snakes inject venoms into the prey’s blood primarily to paralyze or kill it before eating it, but it can also be used as a defense mechanism against any threat including humans. If a snake Venom enters the blood, it can lead to death. The most effective way to prevent damage or death is by injecting a specific anti-venom (antibodies) into the blood as soon as possible to block the venom effect. Each venom is composed of a unique amino acid chain and protein structure that works in a specific way and on a specific body system, for example, cytotoxins (damage cells), hemotoxins (destroy red blood cells or form clots), neurotoxins (disrupt normal nervous system functions including breathing and heart functions). These unique structures cause difficulty in making the different kinds of anti-venom available. In addition, snake identification can be really challenging and can interrupt the treatment plan along with very limited pre-hospital care procedures that can be done. People would feel good when they could get to the hospital not knowing that lots of hospitals stock very few anti-venoms usually for common snakes in the area only. This is causing doctors to be concerned about increased snakebites fatalities. It also needs trained doctors to administer the injection with the right type and dosage. Doctors and people are requesting the hospitals to prioritize emergency patient care more by stocking the hospital with all material needed for snakebites. Most hospitals don’t have it due to the cost of equipment for this rare case. However, it happens, and the cost is not an adequate excuse because it is as low as $1,500 to $2,000 per dose of anti-venom and it is usable for up to 3 years, sometimes less due to its protein nature (antibodies).
Snakes are pretty but dangerous, and the best thing to do first is preventing snakebites to avoid tissue damage and possibly death. Hospitals should be prepared for any case of snakebite patients before it is too late. Hospitals should put emergency patient care as its number one priority including any case of snakebite treatment.
Posted by "Jad Imad" (2)
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ReplyDeleteI am afraid of snakes in a different way than I was before. Now I am more afraid for my life than for the pain. You mentioned the doctors using money as an excuse not to be prepared to save a life. You are right, they are on some other s***. First of all, we have health insurance so that we can be saved in emergencies, and second of all, if the cases are so rare they shouldn't even be considered in the hospital budget, than paying 5000 dollars or whatever for these lifesaving antivenom varieties should cover the issue for centuries.
I am sorry to hear that, but what you should keep in mind is that if you encountered a snake in the wild it will be more afraid of you than you are, that's why snakes run away whenever they feel in danger. However, if you step on it or go after it or try to touch it then it will use the venomous bite to defend itself. Snakes try as much as possible not to use their venom on large preys like human because they won't be able to eat it so normally they try to avoid bites.
DeleteNow for the bills and insurance side i agree with you and hopefully they come up with a better plan because it's important.
More than doctors and hospitals, snake anti-venom should be stocked with the first responders such as the EMT's and Paramedics. I assume most snake bites happen in the wilderness where the victims are far from nearest hospitals. Their initial instinct will be to call the first responders especially if they are incapacitated in some way by the venom.
ReplyDelete- Priya Bikkani
Priya thanks for mentioning this. As a general rule if ambulance companies don't care about the cost of Medications and equipment they used, ambulances would be way bigger, contains way more equipments and EMTs are able to do a lot more procedure on scene or inside the ambulance. Unfortunately that's not the case, so talking about antivenom injections, if they could fined any common protein subunits between the numerous types of snake venom, then it would be possible to carry it in ambulances. Otherwise as I mentioned, it is so hard to identify a snake, know the right dosage and type of venom to use and have all types of antivenom available in the ambulance. There are around 600 species of venomous snakes around the world, so can you imagine how difficult could be to have antivenom for each available?
DeleteAs you've mentioned in our group during class that you work as an EMT, have you ever encountered someone who was bitten by a snake? What was it like and were you guys able to help the person? I also wonder if insurances would cover those expenses. Imagine being hit with a bill for a couple thousand dollars for unintentionally getting a snakebite.
ReplyDeleteHi Han. Honestly, i never had any case of snakebite, yet. However, what i can tell you is that there are nothing we can do to stop the venom from acting, but what we can do is prevent the spread of the venom around body parts (the success of that could vary depending on the location of the venom bite, if in tissues or right into the blood). What we can also do is treat some symptoms that the person might have after the venom action in body systems like hypotension, shortness of breath or heart attacks, but the interventions are limited.
DeleteFor the insurance part, any insurances probably covers it because it is an emergency treatment. And just mentioning that just an ALS ambulance transport could cost you a lot too if you don't have insurance coverage, but certainly in cases like snakebites it is worth it, especially if it's a venomous snake (but you can never guess by looking at it unless you're a professional) so never take a chance and always call for help right away.
Hi Han. Honestly, i never had any case of snakebite, yet. However, what i can tell you is that there are nothing we can do to stop the venom from acting, but what we can do is prevent the spread of the venom around body parts (the success of that could vary depending on the location of the venom bite, if in tissues or right into the blood). What we can also do is treat some symptoms that the person might have after the venom action in body systems like hypotension, shortness of breath or heart attacks, but the interventions are limited.
ReplyDeleteFor the insurance part, any insurances probably covers it because it is an emergency treatment. And just mentioning that just an ALS ambulance transport could cost you a lot too if you don't have insurance coverage, but certainly in cases like snakebites it is worth it, especially if it's a venomous snake (but you can never guess by looking at it unless you're a professional) so never take a chance and always call for help right away.
This is a interesting topic that I think would rarely cross many of our minds. Did the article say if the snake bites were increasing in specific regions or that they are increasing countrywide? Also is anti-venom specific to each snake? If so, i wonder if there is any research being done to create a general anti-venom because I feel that that discovery would allow for better training across hospitals and better outcomes for patients in the future, as well as, hopefully lowering the price if a general one was discovered. I too work as an EMT and agree with the above comments that having it available for paramedic use would exponentially increase patient outcome since we are the first ones of the scene more often than not.
ReplyDelete-Maddie Powers
Snake bites are scary and hospitals should have more treatments for this available. However, I also think that people who live in areas where there is a high number of snakes or a danger of some sort of venom being in their system should have precautions of their own. They should always be prepared for an attack and know what to do if it happens. Do you think that giving out flyers about what to do when you get a snakebite could help? Or the only way to deal with this is the hospitals getting more anti-venom medicine?
ReplyDelete-Olga Egkorova