The western brown snake is the likely cause of a pregnant woman's death, say experts. Photo / Supllied
The western brown snake is the likely cause of a pregnant woman's death, say experts. Photo / Supllied
A heavily pregnant woman and her unborn baby have died after a suspected snake bite in Western Australia's Mid West region.
St John Ambulance officers began CPR on the 27-year-old woman in the town of Meekatharra, 775 kilometres northeast of Perth, and took her to Meekatharra Hospital on Monday night.
A Royal Flying Doctor Service spokeswoman told AAP the woman was 31 weeks pregnant.
News.com.au understands a call was received to St Johns Ambulance at 8:15pm Monday night with reports a woman in her 20s was "having a fit" after "something bit her".
When emergency services attended a member of the public was already performing CPR on the woman.
AAP reports an RFDS doctor helped staff at the hospital but the woman went into cardiac arrest and died.
It is not yet known which type of snake killed the woman but Dr Bryan Fry, Associate Professor for the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, told news.com.au the speed of the woman's death was likely due to the bite of a brown snake.
"The quickness of the action and the symptoms she displayed is entirely consistent with a brown snake, that's something they'll be able to confirm with her blood," Dr Fry said.
"In this case all the signs are pointing towards it being a brown snake because of the type of symptoms she had and how quickly she went down.
"The brown snakes are the only Australian snakes that regularly kill people in under an hour.
"They have an usually fast acting venom which is what makes them so dangerous. From when people start feeling the effects to the time of death it can be as short as a few minutes.
"Some of the other snakes, like Death Adders, you have more time."
Dr Fry said the woman's pregnancy may have played a factor in her fast decline thanks to the venom's ability to rapidly drop blood pressure.
Alice Springs Snake Catcher Rex Neirndorf with one of the deadliest snakes in the world, a Western Brown Snake, that are regularly found in toilets. Photo / news.com.au
"It has to do with action on the blood where it consumes building blocks that we use to make our blood clot. In a human the venom is diluted, so instead of big blood clots we get millions of tiny blood clots formed — the danger comes from that.
"Pregnant women when already have low blood pressure to begin with.
"They're already a couple of steps towards the danger zone just by virtue of being pregnant.
"What causes that rapid drop in blood pressure and the characteristically quick death is something that is a bit of a medical mystery. Despite the iconic nature of these snakes and its bites catastrophic effects it's something we don't have a real handle on.
A western brown snake. Photo / 123rf
"We're trying to crack that riddle, we know it has more blood acting components but from there we don't know how it is related to this catastrophic rapid decline."
