If you are expert and have 45 years experience at your back than it is nowhere
written that you are not prone to accidents and that is exactly what happened to a world-renowned reptile expert and TV wildlife personality Mark O'Shea, 56, had a lucky escape after the massive 10ft reptile clamped its jaws around his leg at West Midlands Safari Park yesterday afternoon.
O'Shea - best known as the presenter of the Discovery Channel series O'Shea's Big Adventure and Channel 4's O'Shea's Dangerous Reptiles - was airlifted to Worcester Royal Hospital after receiving first aid by expert staffers who regularly carryout drill at the park where his condition was yesterday described as 'stable'.
Speaking from his hospital bed, brave Mark described the incident as an accident: “It was an accident. It was just a nick really. Sometimes there are accidents at work but it's just these sort of ones are a lot more interesting to people. It was a lucky escape. I would class any snake bite that doesn't cause a serious injury to be a lucky escape. I won't lie, it did hurt a bit. We are going to have a full investigation but it was just an accident. I'm hoping to be out of hospital soon.”
Bob Lawrence, head keeper at West Midland Safari Park, added: “The animal was being fed behind closed doors. He's lucky. He has had a few encounters before but he is fine. It is very, very rare that these things ever happen. Working with animals like this always carries hazards with it, but we have safety measures in place.”
A spokeswoman from West Midlands Ambulance Service said: 'When crews and the doctor arrived, they found one of the park's snake handlers being cared for by their on-site first aiders. They had already immobilised the leg and administered excellent first aid. The man in his 50s had reportedly been bitten on the leg by a king cobra. The doctor assessed the man and found he was stable and suffering no serious effects from the bite.”
She also added: “Due to the fact the venom can be lethal if it enters the bloodstream, the man was airlifted to Worcester Royal Hospital as a precaution. Medics at the hospital were pre alerted to the arrival of the man who was said to be in a stable condition.”
It's not the first time the daring reptile specialist has been attacked by a deadly snake. In 1993 he nearly died when he was bitten by a canebrake rattlesnake - and he has since been on the receiving end of several other snakebites, spider bites and scorpion stings.
Expert Mark, from Telford, Shropshire, has participated in over 60 expeditions and film trips, to almost 40 countries, on six continents, since the early 1980s.
On his website, the snake enthusiast says: “I have been intrigued by snakes and other reptiles since I was a child and I kept my first snake at the age of eight. Now, almost five decades since snakes first attracted my attention I am still fascinated by their world. It would be fair to say that the study of these amazing creatures had dominated almost half a century for me.”
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