A self-proclaimed snake and venom expert has endured hundreds of snake bites so you don’t have to.
Californian herpetologist Tim Friede has spent the last two decades deliberately injecting himself with hundreds of snake venom shots, all in an attempt to make him immune to fatal bites.
And it looks like it worked.
Friede, who has also been bitten by snakes more than 200 times, has developed antibodies in his blood that are now being used as an anti-venom for a variety of snake bites.
Typically, snake bite victims need anti-venom developed from the same type of snake that bit them.
Anti-venom made from Friede’s blood is universal, and can be used to help victims bitten by any number of snake varieties.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing, though.
“My first couple bites were really crazy,” Friede said, according to NPR. “It’s like a bee sting times a thousand. I mean, you can have levels of anxiety that goes through the roof.”
He’s also had his fair share of ICU and emergency room visits.
Friede’s journey was covered in the journal Cell.
Annually, tens of thousands of people are killed by venomous snake bites across the globe.
Hundreds of thousands more are left disabled.
“I’m doing something good for humanity and that was very important to me,” Friede said. “I’m proud of it. It’s pretty cool.”
