AN eight-year-old girl was rushed to hospital after she was bitten by a venomous adder during an Easter picnic with her family.
The little girl, who has not been named, went to probe the snake with her finger at Kinver Edge, Staffs., on Saturday.
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To her shock, it bit her – causing her finger to “rapidly swell”.
Paramedics later rushed the schoolgirl to the city’s Children’s Hospital where she was pumped with anti-venom serum.
Her dad, David Rathbone, told BirminghamLive: “She had been alerted to the snake’s presence by one of our party, and being a plucky girl, she investigated the striking-looking reptile with her finger.
“Unusually, the snake did not retreat but struck at her finger.
“She gave out a ‘yelp’, at which point I grabbed her hand and sucked hard at the wound on the tip of her index finger. The snake still did not retreat. The snake also struck at my hand forcing me to whip my hand out of range.”
Mr Rathbone said he drove his daughter to Kidderminster hospital, after she “complained of pain and swelling” in her finger.
Just 15 minutes later, her “whole hand had begun to swell”.
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She was taken in an ambulance to Birmingham Children’s Hospital where the anti-venom serum was available.
And after being put in the resuscitation unit, she “received an intravenous infusion of anti-venom serum, which made her quite ill as it’s a strong drug”.
Mr Rathbone said: “After a tetanus jab, she was kept under close observation. A second intravenous infusion was administered at about 1am today.”
The dad added his daughter is now doing fine – although was “a little fed up” to miss their planned Easter egg hunt.
He said she is being kept under observation by doctors as a precaution.
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