KEY POINTS:
A man who was bitten on the penis by a deadly snake used a cold rum can to soothe the pain while he rang his mother to say a final goodbye.
"I thought I was gone," Cairns carpenter Daryl Zutt yesterday told the Cairns Post of his encounter with a brown snake during a roadside toilet stop in remote Far North Queensland.
"I thought, `Maybe, this is it. Maybe, I'm gonna cark it."
The incident occurred two weeks ago, but the identity of the victim remained unknown until yesterday when Mr Zutt revealed how the snake pounced as he relieved himself near Laura, 300km northwest of Cairns, on April 27.
Mr Zutt and his mates were returning from a pig-hunting and fishing trip.
"I squatted down - I reckon I must've nearly sat on his head," he said.
"As soon as I felt it, I yelled.
"It really hurt."
He said he tried to remain calm as he inspected the damage.
"He got me about halfway down," he said. "I saw fang marks and a bit of blood come out."
Mr Zutt and his mate drove to a nearby medical centre to seek help.
"I was nauseous and had pains in the stomach," Mr Zutt said.
"I couldn't talk properly. I was tongue-tied."
A paramedic treated Mr Zutt and took him to hospital.
A series of blood and urine tests confirmed he was not poisoned.
Mr Zutt said he had copped a ribbing from his mates but they knew full well "they could've been attending my funeral".
"They've been saying things like `It was a trouser snake fight' and `He (the snake) saw the competition and got scared'," he said.
He said he would still venture to the outback but there would be no more "running through the bush barefoot and pig-hunting".
- NZPA
