Two first responders might lose their licenses after saving a zoo director who was bitten by a highly venomous snake.
The incident occurred back in May when venom extractor Jim Harrison was bitten by a Jameson’s mamba snake while working on a project at the Kentucky Reptile Zoo.
“I was putting a male Jameson’s mamba with a female, and it touched the tail of the female. She shot out of the cage. I thought I was away from the male, so I went to grab it with a grab stick to grab the female to contain her back, and the male shot out of the cage and was about seven feet long, and he attached the fangs in the top of my thumb,” Harrison told Fox 56.
Harrison got the zoo’s keeper to drive him to Stanton for the antiserum, where an ambulance met him.
“I told the paramedics that I would need five vials of antivenom and adrenaline and that I was probably going to need to be intubated. That’s the last thing I remember,” added Harrison.
Powell County Judge Executive Eddie Barnes said he and another EMS worker were called to help Harrison. He says they couldn’t reach their EMS director but did consult with medical staff at Clark Regional Medical Center.
“Unlike a copperhead or a rattlesnake, you have hours, but with a mamba bite, you have minutes. So we had to act fast,” Barnes said.
That’s when they administered the antivenom.
The Jameson’s mamba is a highly venomous snake native to Africa. It typically preys on birds and small mammals. Without antivenom, this snake’s bite can kill a human being within 30 minutes to a few hours.
🔥July 16 is World Snake Day. This is a Jameson's mamba, photographed in the rainforest of Cameroon.🔥 pic.twitter.com/RFWvhkCCKi
— Nature Is Lit (@NatureIs_Lit) July 16, 2022
The Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services (KBEMS) implemented a policy two years ago mandating that only wilderness paramedics can administer antivenom. Now, the first responders will have to show the administrative agency why they should not lose their licenses.
“If we had sat there and let him die, then we would have been morally and ethically responsible, and we could have been criminally charged for his death,” Barnes told WFSB.
This is one of billions of reasons why the administrative state needs to be seriously scaled back. This, along with onerous licensing requirements, could have resulted in Harrison’s death. The fact that these people could be punished for their quick thinking is a prime example of how government tends to make things worse.
Even if Barnes and his partner wouldn’t have faced charges for complying with this silly rule, it is doubtful that they would have let Harrison die because some bureaucrats decided that only certain people are worthy to save lives.
It’s also worth noting that even if the rule made sense, this was clearly an extenuating circumstance — literally a life or death situation. The fact that the first responders even have to plead their case reveals just how ridiculous this story is. There are tons of rules, regulations, and laws that are not only unnecessary, they also place people in danger.
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