Boy taken to hospital after venomous adder bite at UK beach

An eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital after being bitten by a venomous adder while on holiday with his family in Norfolk.

His mother Sophie, 32, from London, said his hand went "completely hard" following the bite from the venomous snake.

She said: "My son was running around on the beach in the sand dunes and he fell over and was bit by the venomous snake.

“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was our first time there."

Jake Closier was at the beach with his mother and his father, Kenny, 33, last Tuesday.

"I wasn't aware that there were any venomous snakes in the UK that were wild. There were no warning signs on the beach or sand dunes.

"I noticed that my son had been bitten and managed to take a quick snap of it on my phone.

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"I’ve had domestic snakes before and I have been bitten several times by non-venomous snakes when they were babies. It is nothing worse than a hamster bite."

She said her first thought was that Jake had been bitten by a grass snake, so she decided to take him to a nearby medical centre.

"Within about 30 seconds, I checked his finger and it went completely hard and I could see a puncture wound," she said.

"I Googled what the snakes were in Norfolk and straight away it said there were adders in the area.

"That's when I panicked because it finally clicked what type of snake had bitten Jake."

Sophie said they ran from the sand dunes and knocked on someone's door to ask for an ambulance.

"Luckily, a man drove us to the hospital as we were told we'd be waiting eight hours for an ambulance," she said.

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Jake was taken to James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth where doctors inserted an anti-venom drip into his veins.

"By this time his hand had swelled to about five times the size of a normal hand," said Sophie.

"His hand was swollen and hard, we thought it was going to burst. The puncture wound was black. He was vomiting and sweating."

After being given the anti-venom, Jake remained in hospital for 24 hours under observation, as staff checked his heart rate, breathing and circulation.

Although he is now back home, his mother says suffers from “constant nightmares” after the incident and refuses to walk on grass.

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"Jake could have died from it. It was so scary," said Sophie.

"The following day, the venom had already gone through his body so we had got over the risk of him losing his life.

"There was still a danger he could have lost his fingers, hand or arm because he developed fluid retention in the tissue.

"He was in so much pain after they tried to stop the poison getting to the heart. That took about four days to go.

"We just want to warn people about adders when they are on sand dunes. Just look what can happen."

According to the Woodland Trust, adders are the only venomous snake in England. They usually measure between 60cm and 80cm long.

About 100 people in the UK are bitten by adders each year. In most cases, adder bites are easily treatable but, although unlikely, they can be fatal.

The last recorded death from an adder bite in the UK was in 1975.