Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with Craig Garraway from St. Johns Ambulance about a recent snake attack in the Territory

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Katie spoke with Craig Garraway from St. Johns Ambulance about a recent snake attack in the Territory · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Everyone is listening Mix one O four point nine one. Well,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: he usually just catches up with us on a Monday.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: But joining me on the line right now from Saint
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: John's it is Craig Garaway. Good morning to you, Craig Okad.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Good morning and twice in one week.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, I was going to say the same, but well
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and rightly so, because we know that there was actually
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: an incident Monday AVO about one thirty. We're a twenty
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: four year old man was bitten on the wrist by
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a black whip snake. Tell us what happened.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, this happened out at how It Springs that
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: near the dump area there or the tip.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Area on the main.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Road there, and a black whipsnake I believe has come
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: across an employee or a worker out there and bitten
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: him on the hand.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I believe.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Obviously this time of year we do get increased snake
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: bites with the change of weather and snakes start moving around,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: and obviously with the rain as well that does start
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: to flush them out.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so obviously this guy was bitten on the wrist. Firstly,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: is he okay? Yeah?
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look they ran KiB below and we gave obviously
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the appropriate advice over the bone for them, and they
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: treated him there while they waited for an ambulance and
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: he was transported up to the Royal Dale Hospital where
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: he's making a full recovery, which is great news.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: We spoke last week to Rex Nindorf from the Reptile
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Center down in Alice Springs and we were talking about
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the increased volume of snakes around the place and I
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: was quite mortified following on from that discussion because he
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: was like, Katie, They're everywhere all of the time, you
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: just don't see them. And I thought, Wow, that's frightening
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: but also quite scary when you talk about injuries and
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a really timely reminder really to make sure that we
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: do the right thing if we are unfortunate enough to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: actually be bitten by a snake. Yeah.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Look, Rex is an expert in that area.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I remember Rex from my time in our.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Springs and I actually attended Rex when he was written
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: by a king brown snake. He ended up very unwell. Yeah,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: he was very unwell for a long time after that.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: It was actually his pet king ground for Wow.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but anyway, they are very dangerous and we.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Do have the most poisonous snakes in the world, in
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Australia and in particularly in the Northern Territory, so we
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: do need to be very careful, especially at night when
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: they're walking around outside. And Rex is right, they're out
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: there all the time.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: It's just we don't see them.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: And it's probably just because they're a little bit more
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: active now that we're starting to see them.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so what's the best thing for us to do?
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Obviously ring triple zero. But then I'm assuming that there
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: are some certain steps which are going to be pretty pivotal.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they are. And the first thing is not to panic.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, if I was written by a snake, because I
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: just hate snake with a passion, I would panic. But
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: my advice to everyone else is don't just stake.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Can't relax.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: The idea is to a mobilize the area, because we
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: don't want yourunning around and moving that if you have
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: been infaminated, moving out around your body. So the idea
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: is to obviously stay still, don't move the patient.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Obviously you've wrung triple zero.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: And then the idea is to obviously bandage the site,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: usually from the extremity back, so you know, if it's
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: on the hand we would start at the hand and
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: you know, bandage up towards the top of the arm,
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: or you know, if it's the foot from the foot
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: up and back. Don't wipe the area because we actually
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: want that area if there is vemination or you know,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: some sort of poison there to still be there when
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: we get to hospital so they can actually test it.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: It's really handy for the hospital be able to do
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: that and actually identify what snake has actually bit new
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: because the anti venom can can make you actually quite
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: sick if they get that wrong. So it's very important
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: not to wipe anything off, just to keep it splinter,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: keep it still and keep it and bandage it up
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: with a compression bandage.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Very good vice, Craig. Is there a main type of
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: snake that you see the majority of snake bites from
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: up here in the top end or is it really varied?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's varied.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: If I was to talk about Central Australia, King Brown
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: seemed to be everywhere down there and would probably confirm that.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Top end wise, we have from a lock and gather,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: we seem they have a lot more variety of snakes
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: up here.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: But you know, I've.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: Probably reported over the last two or three months a
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: number of snake bites, and they will probably just increase
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: with everything's going on, and they're different types of snake.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: And the problem is, Katie, most people actually don't know
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: what snake bit them, and you know, half time they
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: don't even see the snake, that it is dark, and
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: they realize they're being bitten, but the snake's taken off.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: So a bit of a variety, I think, yeah, right,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and this will sound like a you know, a real
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: novice thing to say, but I didn't even realize that
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: most of those bites happen at nighttime.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the reason for that is obviously we're
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: walking around at night dark and we just come across
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: snakes and you know, the snake doesn't have time to
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: get out of our way.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: And unfortunately we step on them. Obviously, during the.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Day daylight hours, it's more likely we're going to see
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: a snake and therefore.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: We're going to avoid it. It's going to avoid.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Us because most snakes, from my understanding, just want to
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: avoid us.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: They don't want to be around us, or they don't
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: want to attack us. They're just trying to get away.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: And when they do buy it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: It's usually trying to self defense in most instances.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well there you go. Anything else we should be
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: aware of.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: No, I think it's just at a bit busy twenty
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: four hours. We had about five crashes across the NT
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: over the last twenty four hours and nothing to I
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: think a cow yesterday knocked the guy over in East
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: arm There number of injuries from that late in the afternoon.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: But we've had about and I've just thought one last thing.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: We have had sixty snake related incidents in the last
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: twelve months, so probably you know, getting a couple of months,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: but they were increase his time.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: So sixty snake related incidents in the last twelve months.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: And then you said you did you just say that
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a cow knock somebody over.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, we've got a problem with the animals at
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: the moment. They seem to be going berserk. So yeah,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: it look just happened about four o'cot yesterday.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I believe it.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I'm holding out at Bredair and I believe a cow
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: has sort of jammed someone between some gates and injured
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: their chest and knocked them to the ground. So currently
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: it's attended. Yeah, he's in a stable condition. I think
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: thirty four year old male from memory of MATHI fifty.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I can't remember anymore. It's my old age company. But yeah,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: so he's recovering in hospital. But yeah, stay away from
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: the animals. They're sort of the heat's obviously impacting on
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: all of them.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, goodness, mate, I do hope that he's okay. That'd
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: be bloody frightening. It sounds like you've been very busy,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Craig Garaway.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I think all emergency service and health work
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: is right across the NTY and Australia at the time
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: with are really under the pump. So you know, my
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: heart goes out to everyone that's trying to make a
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: difference out there in a really hard environment.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Well, Craig Garaway, we appreciate your time. Thank you very
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: No worries, Katie, you have a great day. I'll talk
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: to you Monday.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: You too, Thank you,