Just last week a family friend was bitten by a huge copperhead and was in real bad shape. My mother, a nurse for 40 years and the director of protocols for a string of hospitals in southwest Missouri, took him to the hospital for care. They were very hesitant to give him the anti-venom, but after about 20 hours and a move to the ICU, they gave him the ONLY dose they had at the hospital. He's a big burly bastard, and they decided he needed another dose. They had to put him in an ambulance and take him an hour to the next hospital to get another dose.
My mother, after seeing everything first hand, launched into a review of their snake-bite procedures. She came to find out after speaking with the head pharmacist, that the anti-venom our friend needed was $64,000 - and they have a short shelf life! This was the reasoning for only having one dose at the hospital they went to.
Our friend is fine, and has a good story to tell. My mother called a 'meeting of the minds' for the hospitals she oversees to try to find a solution.
All that to say, yes, there are indeed problems with anti-venom!
The second hospital was a larger hospital in Springfield. The doctors at the first recommended they move him instead of the anti-venom because they said the docs at the larger hospital were more experienced in snakebites, and he was plenty stable. However, according to my mom, their procedures weren't any better.
My mother, after seeing everything first hand, launched into a review of their snake-bite procedures. She came to find out after speaking with the head pharmacist, that the anti-venom our friend needed was $64,000 - and they have a short shelf life! This was the reasoning for only having one dose at the hospital they went to.
Our friend is fine, and has a good story to tell. My mother called a 'meeting of the minds' for the hospitals she oversees to try to find a solution.
All that to say, yes, there are indeed problems with anti-venom!