Australian man bitten by deadly snake relaxed with a cold beer while waiting for the ambulance

54 year old Queensland man bitten by an eastern brown snake

He was working in his garden when he was bitten on the finger



He hit the snake on the head with his shovel before calling an ambulance

Grabbed a cold beer from the fridge while waiting for help to arrive

He didn't wake his napping son because he didn't want to disturb him

Was allergic to the anti-venom and has spent three weeks in hospital



A Queensland man who was bitten by Australia's deadliest snake calmly reached for a cold beer and sat down to wait for an ambulance.



Rod Sommerville, 54, was bitten on the finger by an eastern brown snake – the world’s second most venomous snake – while working in his garden in Yeppoon, Central Queensland. But it’s what happened next that would impress even the toughest survivalists.

Mr Sommerville hit the snake over the head with his shovel and called himself an ambulance. He then grabbed a cold beer from the fridge and quietly waited for help to arrive, according to the New Zealand Herald.



Deadly: the eastern brown is the second most venomous snake in the world, and is considered Australia's most dangerous snake

Mr Sommerville’s teenage son was asleep on the couch at the time, but slept through the entire ordeal because his dad didn’t want to bother him.

'If you panic, it makes it worse,' Mr Sommerville told the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin.



'I said to myself, if I'm going to cark it (die) I'm going to have a beer, so I got a Goldie (Australian beer XXXX Gold) out of the fridge and drank that.'

Angry: Notorious for its aggressive nature and fast-acting poison, the eastern brown is responsible for more than 50 per cent of snake-bite deaths in Australia

Things didn’t get any easier for Mr Sommerville once help arrived, though. The father suffered an allergic reaction to the anti-venom and spent four days in intensive care.

And while he’s now recovering, he’s yet to be discharged from hospital, more than three weeks after being bitten.

“The reaction nearly killed me as well, so it was a double whammy,” he said.



There are more than 3,000 reported snake bites in Australia each year, but less than five on average prove fatal.