Do hospitals just like know about all snakebites or is it part of like a special doctor training or do they just have like a snake expert doctor on staff. Do they have all the anti-venoms readily available or do you need to go to a special snake hospital.
In: Biology
Antivenom or antivenin is expensive and can be difficult to make snd store, so it’s availability will vary depending on the size of the hospital and the region you’re in. I live in Ohio and one of my cousins got bit by a copperhead when he was a kid. Although his hospital was rural, copperheads are a known environmental danger in that area, so they had that on hand. Sometimes a bite will require more antivenom than the hospital has on hand, so they’ll need to call other places and get more in or transport the patient.
Doctors in a specific region should know how to recognize the signs and symptoms of contact with venomous wildlife, even if they’re not real familiar with treating that particular bite. They can call poison control or local wildlife experts (some parks have wildlife biologists, or Fish and Wildlife, for example) for help/information on diagnosis and treatment. So i think it’s a matter of recognition, knowing procedure, and who your area experts are.
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