VANCOUVER -- A British Columbia man who suffered a potentially-deadly snake bite in Costa Rica is recovering in a Vancouver hospital thanks to the quick work of a medical team and an emergency flight to Seattle to pick up an anti-venom drug.

The 61-year-old Metro Vancouver man was bitten by a poisonous snake while walking along a beach, and quickly developed symptoms ranging from the swelling of his leg and bleeding from his nose and eyes to kidney failure.

He was flown back to Vancouver where staff at Vancouver General Hospital and the B.C. Drug and Poison Information Centre managed to identify the kind of snake and began the search for an anti-venom drug.

The centre's director, Dr. Roy Purssell, says the drug was found at the Seattle zoo and an air ambulance was dispatched within hours to pick it up.

He says once the drug was administered the patient began to improve almost immediately.

The man is now listed in stable condition in hospital.