Venomous snake with severed head still bites man almost to death

The incident happened on May 27 when Milo Sutcliffe, living in Corpus Christi, Texas, and his wife Jennifer saw a snake about 1.2 m long while gardening in the backyard.

Milo immediately took a shovel and chopped off the snake's head. However, when Milo bent down to pick up the snake's body, the severed head bit his hand, causing the venom to be transmitted into his body.

Jennifer immediately called an ambulance to take her husband to the hospital. On the way, Milo's health condition worsened, so the medical team had to call a helicopter to take him away. The bite caused Milo to have seizures, lose his vision and bleed internally, according toThe Sun.

"The snake injected all of its venom into him. A normal person would only need about two to four doses of anti-venom, but my husband needed 26 doses," Jennifer toldABC News.

Milo is currently recovering in hospital, but doctors say his kidney function is still weak.

James Murphy, director of the Reptile Discovery Center at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington DC, said snakes can still move about an hour after death.

"When a snake is decapitated, it is dead and its basic bodily functions have ceased, but it still has reflexes. In other words, snakes are still able to bite and inject venom even after their heads have been cut off," said Mr. Murphy.

Leslie Boyer, director of the VIPER Institute at the University of Arizona, said picking up the snake's severed head was "a classic mistake."

"We did not know that reptiles and mammals are very different. The severed head of a snake and its venom glandscan still continue to operate for a long time afterward," Mr. Boyer affirmed.

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