We were on a coast walk when danger reared its ugly head. By Ellie Coates, 20
I climbed over the rocks, taking it slowly as my boyfriend, Chris, and our friends scampered off across the cliff.
We were on holiday in Devon for the week, and after a few days of enjoying the local pubs and going down to the beach in the warm weather, we’d decided to walk along the coast.
Up ahead, I saw them standing around next to an abandoned canoe.
‘Thanks for waiting, guys,’
I said, when I reached them.
It was only then that I noticed the pained expression on my fella’s face.
‘What’s happened?’ I asked.
‘Chris got bitten by a snake,’ said our mate Jack.
He’d lifted up the old canoe, and the snake had suddenly reared up before sinking its teeth into the index finger of his right hand.
‘It’s fine,’ Chris insisted. ‘It’s only a grass snake.’
But before it slithered off, Jack had snapped a picture
of it.
When he showed me, I squinted at the slim snake and spotted a black diamond on its head.
‘That’s not a grass snake,’
I said. ‘It’s an adder.’
My mum had travelled lots and had warned me about adders because they can hide in the long grass.
‘They can be poisonous, you idiots!’ I said, inspecting Chris’s finger.
‘It just felt like a pin prick,’ Chris said with a shrug.
He seemed fine, but we needed to get home and clean it up.
‘It might get infected,’ I said.
So, we headed back while our friends made a detour to the shops to buy dinner.
We’d been walking along for five minutes when Chris stopped talking.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
But when I glanced round at him, I could see for myself that he wasn’t.
His lips had swollen up and there were white bumps all over his face and neck.
‘I feel sick,’ he said, ‘I need to sit down.’
I tried to
support him,
but he slumped
to the ground.
‘We just need to get to the top of the hill,’ I said, helping him up.
‘I can’t,’ Chris said.
He fell to the ground again and began vomiting.
‘Chris!’ I cried, sinking to my knees beside him.
His eyes flickered open but he kept being violently sick.
I needed to get help, but my phone had no service.
When I finally got a signal, I quickly called our friends.
‘You need to come back,’ I begged. ‘Chris has collapsed.’
‘Pull the other one,’ our mate laughed.
But before I could tell him I was serious, I lost signal again.
Looking at the stretch of hill we had to climb, I was filled with panic. There was no way I could get Chris home by myself.
By now, he was writhing on the ground in agony.
‘It’ll be OK,’ I said, trying to comfort him, but I knew he could barely hear me.
Suddenly, I saw a figure in the distance and waved my arms to get their attention.
They were heading in our direction, so I ran towards them, shouting, ‘Please, can you help me?’
It was an older man and, when I reached him, I said, ‘My boyfriend has been
bitten by a snake and he’s passed out!’
His eyes widened, but then he gave me a kindly smile.
‘I’m a retired doctor,’ he said. ‘I’m staying near here with my family. Let’s take
him there.’
He was so calm, I instantly felt reassured.
Within minutes, the man had helped me carry Chris up the hill to the holiday home he was staying in with his wife and children. He laid him on the floor, with his head on a cushion, while he checked him over.
When Chris began shivering, they got a blanket for him.
‘Is an ambulance coming?’
I asked.
‘It might be a while,’ the man said. ‘The nearest hospital is an hour away.’
When paramedics finally arrived, they gave Chris fluids, before rushing us to hospital.
Please can you help me?
He was wheeled away for tests, while I sat fidgeting in my seat, waiting for news.
‘Chris has had a severe allergic reaction to the adder bite, which is very rare,’ the doctor explained later that evening.
He told me the symptoms were like anaphylactic shock.
‘We’ve given him some anti-venom, which should work in 24 hours,’ he said. ‘But we’ll keep him in for monitoring.’
‘I’ll be back first thing,’
I said, hugging a pale, poorly looking Chris.
Our friends came to pick me up and when I told them what had happened after they’d left us, they couldn’t believe it.
The next morning, when
I visited Chris, he was sitting up in bed and looked so much better than he had
the night before.
He was almost back to his usual chatty self.
By late afternoon, he was well enough to be discharged, so we headed back to where we were staying.
Thankfully, the rest of the holiday passed without incident.
Before heading home to Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, we met up with the man who’d helped us.
‘I’m just really grateful,’ Chris told him, giving him some biscuits and beer as a thank you.
Looking back, we were so lucky that the person who came along in our hour of need was a doctor.
Who knows what would have happened without the help of that kind stranger.