creekland Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 As part of our rural sharing of "what's going on" we learned this morning of a gentleman who was the recipient of a Copperhead Bite. He never saw the snake (before). It was hiding under a piece of trash he picked up. Were y'all aware of just how much the anti-venom for that is? (JUST the anti-venom - not any other hospital charges.) It's 20K! This brought two things to mind... The first is wondering if that's how much it costs all over or just here in more rural US? The second is a shudder when I think about how many people opt to "go without" any form of health care coverage. I know we (personally) have an emergency fund, but there's no way we could easily cover 20K + all other ER costs... I can't honestly fathom the risk of having no coverage at all - even if a snake bite hasn't been a concern in our family. (Fortunately, that snake was killed, but where there's one...) And of course, unexpected snake bites aren't the only "guess what happened" option out there that can hit the young and healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madteaparty Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I have had occasion to chat with my rural pharmacist and he says, in our area, "the diagnosis is the cure". Meaning people find out what it costs and opt to without... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Wow. And it's not like you can say "Gee...I'll just skip the meds and tough this one out." For our family, (who has a $10K deductible) that would be a big deal. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serenade Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I have had occasion to chat with my rural pharmacist and he says, in our area, "the diagnosis is the cure". Meaning people find out what it costs and opt to without... I've had to do this before, even with insurance. No labs are covered until the deductible is met, and the doctor wouldn't prescribe medication without the labs. So I opted against the labs and suffered through some horrible days of severe salmonella. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted August 31, 2016 Author Share Posted August 31, 2016 I have had occasion to chat with my rural pharmacist and he says, in our area, "the diagnosis is the cure". Meaning people find out what it costs and opt to without... You can't go without that one - at least - not in his situation. They were measuring his hand/arm even with treatment as they were concerned with compression problems due to the swelling. Wow. And it's not like you can say "Gee...I'll just skip the meds and tough this one out." For our family, (who has a $10K deductible) that would be a big deal. I'd still take 10K over 20K + the rest as I doubt "the rest" is inexpensive either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Antivenin is very expensive. It has to be created from snake venom, meaning someone has to actually handle and extract live, venomous snakes to get it, and has a very short shelf life. We've visited the Kentucky Reptile Zoo, which is one of the largest producers of venom in the USA for antivenin and biomedical research, and Jim Harrison, who does the extracting, has been bitten multiple times, and his body shows it. It's a really, really dangerous job. FWIW, KRZ is non-profit. No one is making millions of dollars on snake venom, but a really bad bite, especially from a rarer or harder to keep/extract from snake (like a coral snake) can easily cost millions of dollars to treat. A copperhead bite would be on the cheap side. In the case of KRZ, they actually often will extract and create and fed ex an antivenin as needed, especially for rarer snake Bites. It is simply not cost effective, or possible, to keep a full course of antivenin on hand for every single species, and even for something like a copperhead, cottonmouth, or rattlesnake, a hospital will probably be sending for more antivenin before the course of treatment is through. When we've had very snowy/icy winters, KRZ will post on their page and send out to snake keepers forums online NOT to work with venomous-that they cannot get Antivenin out. (There is a similar farm in Florida, so it's not a single channel system, but if Louisville is iced in, it could be very, very hard to get antivenin to a patient in time. Fortunately, wild snakes brumate in winter in most of the USA, so the chance of a bite is much, much less then). This, by the way, is a major reason not to try to kill venomous snakes in your yard, but get someone who knows what they're doing to remove the snake and try to control snake habitat. Because almost all bites take place when someone tries to kill the snake. If you hunt or hike, wear boots and jeans, and, again, avoid snake habitat. If you have to go off-trail through tall grass, high boots oradditional leather chaps are recommended, especially in rattlesnake country. It is much better to prevent a snake bite than treat one after the fact. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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