A Bay County, Mich. man was bitten by a pet cobra and given 28 vials of antivenom from Florida's Miami-Dade County.
According to the Detroit Medical Center, the 26-year-old Pinconning Township man was bitten on July 14 by an Albino Monocled Cobra he was keeping as a pet.
He was taken to the hospital after becoming nauseated, vomiting and drowsy. He then suffered respiratory paralysis and stopped breathing from the venom, where he was taken to the Detroit Medical Center where he was given the antivenom.
Toxicology at the DMC first contacted the Toledo Zoo and eight vials of general antivenom were sent to the DMC and administered to the patient within a half hour of arrival. The antivenom covers some but not all poisonous snakes, and it had little effect on the patient as he continued to worsen.
After, toxicology contacted the Miami-Dade Emergency Response Team which dispatched 20 vials of antivenom and administered to the patient.
The monocled cobra is native to the Asian countries of India, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal, and Thailand. Its venom is highly potent and among the fasting acting of all snakes', with death arriving as soon as an hour after a bite, according to Reptiles Magazine.
