Snake catcher's horrific injuries after python almost strangles her to death
A North Queensland snake catcher has issued a warning after a python wrapped itself around her neck causing her to pass out.
Sue Ambler, a snake catcher from Mission Beach, Queensland, took to Facebook after she tried to remove a snake from a tree recently.
“I was catching a snake the other day and things turned for the worse,” she wrote.
“When I grabbed the snake out of the tree it landed around my neck (and) before I could unwind the snake from my neck it tightened around my neck and face.
“Before long it asphyxiated me to the point I passed out and fell to the ground.”
Luckily, the woman wasn’t alone. The client who called her about the snake witnessed the horrific scene and rang an ambulance.
“If it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the people I was catching the snake for I wouldn’t be alive to tell my story,” Ms Ambler wrote.
“As an ambulance guy said, one more minute and I would have been dead.”
Ms Ambler wrote the incident came as a warning to anyone encountering snakes, and how as a professional snake catcher “this can even happen to us”.
“Even though pythons are non-venomous they are dangerous too so please don’t handle snakes by yourself,” she wrote.
“Call in a professional snake catcher.
“I ended up with two black eyes and I busted a lot of blood vessels in my eyes.”
The snake catcher added she received a “friction burn” on her nose from the python tightening around her face and is still in “quite a lot of pain”.
“So please call a snake catcher and don’t remove snakes by yourself,” she wrote.
The woman, who lives alone, was “absolutely panicked” and called her son who contacted Toowoomba Snake Catchers 24/7.
Young Zeffy was just about to make his way down the tree on the Pomona property when he heard something hissing beneath him.
