Woman ignores snake bite to bake cake

Cake is not particularly effective as an anti-venom. Photo / Herald on Sunday

An Australian woman is recovering in hospital after ignoring a bite from one of the world's deadliest snakes.

Tove Tagell, 45, said she was lucky to be alive after her encounter with a western brown snake, which bit her while she was hanging out washing at her home near Darwin on Wednesday.

Ms Tagell kicked the snake as it leaped out from underneath her washing basket. Believing she'd only received a scratch from the highly venomous snake, she finished her chore and went inside to bake a cake.

"I didn't think it was anything serious," she told the Northern Territory News. "But then the headache hit and I thought I better go to the hospital."

Ms Tagell is now being treated with brown snake antivenene in the high dependency unit at Royal Darwin Hospital.

"I should go and buy a lotto ticket," she said.

The western brown snake is the second-deadliest snake in Australia's Top End. Only the rare coastal taipan's venom is more toxic.

Darwin reptile handler Chris Peberdy told the paper that the more common western brown had killed more people in the region than any other kind.

- NZ HERALD ONLINE