TEN YEARS AGO Friday August 8, 2008

Helicopter flies in serum after man is bitten by adder

Anti-venom serum was brought to Campbeltown by helicopter after a man was bitten by an adder on Davaar Island on Sunday evening. Stewart McGougan, aged 45, who lives at Davaar Avenue, was helping sort out a problem with water pipes on the island and did not even notice he had been bitten. It was only later when his hand began to hurt and swell that he noticed two small puncture wounds. By the next morning his hand was badly inflamed, swollen to an alarming degree and the swelling had spread into his forearm, so he went to hospital. ‘I cannot fault the care at the hospital. The nurses and doctors were fantastic,’ said Mr McGougan, who works for Campbeltown Creamery. ‘There was no anti-venom serum in Argyll, so they tracked some down and the helicopter brought it as it was coming to the hospital anyway.’