WILL I BE ALL RIGHT?
What Briton asked after bite from rare sea snake – which killed him within hours
A BRITISH backpacker working his way around Australia on a prawn trawler has become the country’s second ever victim to die from a sea snake bite.
Harry Evans, 23, asked the first mate ‘will I be all right?’ after being bitten on the finger by the creature, which was caught in a net on the Ocean Explorer.
Despite being told he would be ‘fine’ he lost consciousness within hours and was dead by the time more medical help arrived, an inquest heard.
The only other person to die in Australia from a sea snake bite did so in 1934. In a statement read to the Darwin coroner’s court, Mr Evans’ mother, Sharon Evans, said her son had been ‘living the dream’ before he was ‘robbed of his future’.
‘I have lost one of the two most important things in my life, my purpose,’ she said. ‘George has lost his twin, his best friend, his constant companion who should have been there for life.
‘Harry was not reckless and would not have put himself at unnecessary risk. ’
Mr Evans, from Poole, Dorset, was not wearing gloves when he was bitten by the black-banded sea snake off Bing Bong in the Northern Territory’s Gulf of Carpentaria last October. However, the inquest heard this practice was common on such boats, where crew usually pick up snakes by their tail and toss them back into the water.
Robert Daly, an engineer on the Ocean Explorer, said: ‘They’re generally placid. You don’t hear of anyone dying. I’ve been bitten myself.’ First mate Chad Hastings said: ‘[Harry] asked me “will I be all right?” and I was trying to calm him down so I said “you’ll be fine”.’
Mr Evans had been instructed by the skipper to shower before first aid was applied around ten minutes later. Nicholas Huard told the inquest that, upon reflection, he should have done this immediately. When emergency services were contacted, Mr Huard said there was confusion about where the trawler should go but a pathology report found that this did not make a difference.
‘It was inevitable that he was going to die about when he did,’ counsel Kelvin Currie said.
An infectious diseases physician, Dr Bart Currie, described the situation as ‘unprecedented’, with Mr Evans showing signs of envenomation within an hour of being bitten.
A UK coroner has already recorded a verdict of accidental death. The Australian inquest continues.