LUCKY MAN: John Watson is counting his lucky stars he is alive. Picture: PETER WEAVING

A SUMMERFIELD man has been woken by a metre-and-a-half-long brown snake slithering over his bare stomach.



John Watson believes he has cheated death.



He has told of his shock and disbelief at waking to the metre-long brown snake lying across his bare stomach in his home near Raywood.



Mr Watson, who suffers from Emphysema and is partially immobile, said he thought he was dreaming when the world's second-most venomous snake woke him on Thursday morning.



"I went to sleep at 5am and I woke up and looked down and here is a big, fat brown snake right over my stomach," he said.



"The reason I woke up was the feeling of it sliding across my tummy.



''For this to happen to even a normal person is just awesomely amazing. Why is this snake on my stomach?

"The fact that I am alive is just incredible.



"It could of been on there, I don't know how long - I was asleep."



"It was almost surreal.''



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Mr Watson said he was more shocked than scared and forgot to trigger the panic alarm which he wears constantly around his neck.

"(I thought) this is a dream, this is a nightmare (but) I knew it wasn't,'' Mr Watson said.



''Yes, it's really happening... you're awake and this was a brown snake.



''It wasn't so much the fear, it was what do I do next? What do I do... if I can't find the thing, what do I do? Where do you go?



''How bad a nightmare do you want."

Mr Watson said as he woke the snake slid backwards off his body and down the side of his recliner near where his glasses, mobile phone and the control to help left him out of the chair were sitting.

''I had to make all these decisions in a split second. Now, to get off one of these lift chairs in this position is near impossible,'' Mr Watson said.



He managed to climb out of his chair and away from the snake before calling a neighbour for help.

LUCKY MAN: John Watson is counting his lucky stars he is alive. Picture: PETER WEAVING

"I rang my farmer friend and told him what was going on, and asked him 'please come down, it's under my chair'," he said.

"Ten minutes elapsed and he turned up with a long spade but he couldn't see the snake.

"I say (to him) I have bare feet and what I am going to do because I can't even move much'."

John Watson's property in Summerfield near Raywood. Picture: PETER WEAVING

Mr Watson said the neighbour searched the house and eventually found the snake behind a fridge in the kitchen.

He said the neighbour removed the snake from the house.

Mr Watson said he had come in contact with snakes before but didn't know anyone who had one slither into their house let alone across their stomach as they slept.

"I am thinking maybe there is a hole behind my chair," he said.



"Snakes can get through a very small area, they can flatten out like a mouse - they can get through the smallest hole.

"God has let me get away with beating death 100 times.



"I am so lucky."

