My Worst Nightmare

There has been some scary stuff in the news recently, much of it to do with natural disasters, but a report in the papers and on the local news yesterday brought my fears of another sort of natural terror to the surface once more. Snakes. Sneaky, slithery, venomous snakes in a story that will probably give me nightmares for days because it is just that – my own personal nightmare, something that I have lain in bed at night being terrified at the prospect of.


The true story involves a 7 year-old boy safely tucked up in his bed at night. At least, both he and his parents assumed he was safe, as you do when you’re in your own bed in your own room in the family home. Softly sleeping, in a world of little boy dreams of racing cars and super heroes and swimming in a sea of Lego, he was awoken by his own screams and a searing pain in his foot. His screams only intensified as he looked over at his arm, which felt tight and heavier than usual. Wrapped several times around his left arm was a Dugite, a highly venomous Australian species of Brown snake capable of inflicting a potentially fatal bite. I can’t even imagine the fright of waking up to find a snake clinging to your arm, especially as the boy then watched in horror as it bit his finger!

The Dugite had apparently entered the boy’s bedroom through a small hole in the wall, presumably in search of food and water, slithered up his bed and bitten him on his toe and then again on his foot, before wrapping itself around his arm. His piercing screams woke his mother, who ran into his room to see the snake still clinging to his arm despite the poor boy’s frenzied attempts to fling it from his body. She managed to calm him somewhat and hold him still as the snake released its grip and began to slither off. I suppose the snake was just as frightened as the boy, hence its rigid grip, not that that would have been much consolation to him. An ambulance was called and by the time he reached hospital, his whole body had paralysed. Four doses of antivenom later and he was on the road to recovery although, unsurprisingly, he is too scared to sleep in his bedroom.

This story is truly my worst nightmare and I have vowed to rake the fallen leaves as soon as possible and check for any holes in the walls. As the mother said, “You think you’re kids are safe when you put them to bed. You don’t expect them to wake with a snake around their arm.” Indeed you do not.