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SYDNEY - Doctors will work through the night to save the life of a 16-year-old boy bitten in Sydney by one of the world's most venomous snakes.
The teenager stumbled from bushland into the middle of a suburban cricket game and collapsed after being bitten on the finger by an Eastern Brown Snake, an ambulance spokesman said.
It's believed the boy's trek for help with a mate, in hot conditions, only served to spread the snake's deadly venom through his body.
The boy emerged from the bush reserve at Whalan, on Sydney's western outskirts, about midday and collapsed unconscious, suffering a heart attack on the cricket field, the ambulance spokesman said.
Witnesses told the Nine Network the boy was frothing at the mouth and his gums were bleeding.
The cricketers called for help and did what they could to comfort the boy until an ambulance arrived.
He remains critically ill at Westmead Hospital.
The Eastern Brown Snake is common on Australia's eastern coast and considered one of the world's most dangerous reptiles. It is fast-moving and aggressive.
It was once widespread in the Sydney region and grows to two metres.
- AAP
