Popular snake catcher recounts ‘freak’ moment she was bitten by extremely venomous serpent

A popular Queensland snake catcher has shared the “freak” moment she was bitten by an eastern brown snake in her Sunshine Coast backyard.

Mikayla, who works for Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, was walking outside her house “barefoot (mistake number one) and wasn’t watching where I was walking (mistake number two)”, she wrote in a post on Facebook, alongside video of the moment and photos of her bite in the aftermath.

“I was walking when I stood on something, and I felt a sharp pain in my left foot,” Mikayla continued.

“I looked down and saw an Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja Textillis) quickly slither away (proof that snakes just want to escape).

“I immediately walked around the side of my house, away from the snake, sat down, called my dad, and told him to bring a snake bite bandage as I’d just been bitten. Within two minutes of the bite occurring, we had the pressure immobilisation bandage on and Queensland Ambulance Service on the way.”

Within five minutes of being bitten, Mikayla continued, she began experiencing abdominal pain, vomiting, severe pain in the leg, profuse sweating, headache, and high blood pressure.

“Once I arrived at the hospital, they immediately took bloods, and within an hour, came back and said they were needing to administer antivenene as I had been envenomated,” she said.

“I was given two vials of antivenene, with thankfully only a mild reaction of hives. A few hours after the bite, I was experiencing severe weakness in my left leg, causing me to be unable to walk without assistance or a mobility aid. This has only gotten better in the last day.”

Mikayla said that her intention was not for “snakes to be villainised because of this complete freak accident.”

“I am exposed to danger every single day in my line of work as a snake catcher, and the one time I’m bitten was a freak accident where I accidentally stood on a snake out the back of my house,” she said.

“Immediately after the snake bit me, it fled. Their only defense mechanism in a situation of perceived danger is to bite. They can’t scream, they can’t yell, they can’t punch; all they can do is bite. There is never ANY reason to kill a snake; leave them be, and they will flee.”

According to the most recent Queensland Health data, emergency department presentations for snake bites rose from 1094 cases in 2023 to 1257 in 2024, an increase of 15 percent.

Last December alone, there were 160 snakebite cases at public emergency departments.

The eastern brown snake – whose venom can be fatal in less than 30 minutes after a strike – is responsible for the most snake-related deaths in Australia (though such incidents are rare).

“They’re the only snakes in the world that regularly kill people in under 15 minutes,” University of Queensland biologist and snake researcher Professor Bryan Fry previously told the ABC.

“Even more insidiously than that is that for the first 13 minutes, you’re going to feel fine.”