Oct 28, 2008 9:30 am US/Eastern
Fla. Man Survives Attack From King Cobra
Venom From A King Cobra Can Kill An Elephant
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (CBS) ―
A Homestead man who was bitten by a King Cobra snake and hospitalized in critical condition has been upgraded to good condition two days after the potentially deadly bite, reports CBS station WFOR-TV in Miami.
The 13-foot-long cobra bit him at a Homestead wildlife center on Sunday but he's doing so much better, he's expected to talk about his frightening ordeal later Tuesday.
Experts with Miami-Dade's Venom Unit say it's been about 15 years since they've treated a King Cobra bite in South Florida.
The victim, Albert Killian, is an experienced snake handler and a volunteer at the Everglades Outpost, a wildlife rescue sanctuary. He was hospitalized after being bitten in the forearm.
The 50-year-old victim was cleaning the cobra's cage around 2:30 p.m. when he was bitten. "In this case, this gentleman has been dealing with snakes for 30-plus years at a minimum, and he just got a little careless," explained Miami-Dade Venom Unit Chief Al Cruz. "The snake did what a snake does, which is bite when it gets the opportunity."
Killian was given more than 20 vials of anti-venom and doctors watched his condition very closely to make sure he didn't suffer internal bleeding or respiratory failure. King Cobra venom is complicated and deadly.
"He's in an excruciating amount of pain at this point," Cruz said the night of the snake bite. "When it injects venom, it's not so much the toxicity but the quantity. They can inject up to a martini glass full of venom into you."
The King Cobra is a very dangerous snake. Its venom has the ability to kill a full-grown elephant. The snake is not native to South Florida. They're found mostly in Asian countries, such as Thailand and India. There are only a few of them located in animal sanctuaries throughout South Florida.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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