We recently received a fantastic article and snake bite cheat sheet from one of our good friends, Nick Van Der Walt, the Training and Development Manager for Access Professional Development. Nick has over 18 years’ worth of pre-hospital emergency care and holds a bachelor’s degree in emergency medical care and rescue, among other qualifications. He has also recently been selected as a panel member for the South African Snakebite Symposium. Nick’s love of reptiles and particularly snakes and their bites has had him working with reptiles since 2002. Aside from his scaley friends, one of Nick’s other great passions is education. He is constantly striving to ensure that there is better training material and more up-to-date content available, to keep both his students and the public informed and safe.
That brings us to Nick’s latest publication in the South African Medical Journal, a paper entitled Approach to the diagnosis and management of snakebite envenomation in South Africa in humans: Layperson aspects and the role of emergency medical services. The aim of this paper is to make it easier for the average day person to understand how to treat snakebite victims when the bite happens and how to properly ensure their safety until emergency medical services arrive or until the victim is transported to a hospital. This information could help save lives, especially in cases where a bite occurs far away from medical services or if you are dealing with a snakebite victim and are not sure about the proper precautions to take while waiting for emergency services. Read more in the PDF below!