Sea snake victim ‘was having time of his life’
A BRITISH backpacker who died after being bitten by a sea snake in Australia told his family he had been having the time of his life in his final phone call home.
Harry Evans, 23, was bitten on the thumb by the reptile while pulling up a net on a fishing trawler off Groote Eylandt on Thursday afternoon. He told colleagues he felt fine but then began to drift in and out of consciousness.
The crew desperately tried to revive him but he died about an hour later.
It is believed to be the first recorded death from a sea snake in Australia.
Mr Evans’s twin brother George said: “When you think about being bitten by a snake, you go back to all these documentaries that your body shuts down and it is horrendous – but it wasn’t. It was all very peaceful. He was in and out of consciousness. They did CPR, but he just went and never came back.”
His mother, from Poole in Dorset, said he had called her the day before he died and told her he was having a wonderful time. She is “in disbelief” after being told the news. She said: “Harry was the happiest he had ever been as an adult on that boat. He called me and said he was having the time of his life.”