Vic grandmother attacked by python 'seconds from death'
A Melbourne grandmother is lucky to be alive after she was almost strangled to death by a pet python.
Sharon Plevko, of Kilsyth, was on the phone when the two-metre-long snake, nicknamed Scoot, wrapped itself around her neck and began to choke her.
As she tried to call for help, the snake squeezed tighter, stopping her air supply.
Sharon said she thought she was going to die.
"It was pretty quick, he went twice around my neck and started doing the choke," she said. "I tried to get him off but I couldn't, he was that strong.
"It felt like someone had grabbed me and it got tighter, and tighter, and tighter.
"He was serious. It was like someone had put something around my neck and was pulling at it.
"I just couldn't even get one finger in to pull him off and get some air in. I could barely talk and I was asking for help."
Sharon's daughter, Laura, was on the other end of the line, powerless to respond to her mother's muffled pleas for help.
"We thought she was joking," Laura said. "All of sudden we could hear her saying: 'help me, help me'. She couldn't talk.
"We didn't know what to do. It was terrifying."
Sharon believes she was strangled for more than 90 seconds.
"I couldn't breathe," she said. "I thought my eye balls were going to pop out - that was how bad it was."
Eventually, Sharon managed to free herself from the python's grasp.
"I squeezed its neck and then squeezed his tail and he loosened a bit," she said.
After breaking free, she returned the python to its enclosure and dialled Triple 0.
An ambulance took her to Box Hill Hospital with neck injuries ad blurred vision. Paramedics told Sharon she was just seconds away from death.
"To actually feel the blood rise to your head," Sharon recalled. "I could feel the pressure behind my eyes. The pressure in my head was so bad."
Sharon said Scoot had been in the family for over two years and had never attacked.
"I've had him around my neck and he goes wherever he wants to," she said.
"I wasn't really paying attention. I think he was probably trying to get on the bench top or something.
"When I wasn't doing anything with him, for some reason he decided 'well, this is what I'm going to'."
Over the next few years, Scoot will double in size to four-and-a-half metres, but neither that nor last night's choking scare is enough to put his owner off.
"I still think he's cute," Sharon said.
Snake expert Paul Stokes has warned handlers about resting pythons around the shoulder and neck area.
"They're a snake that can constrict very tightly," hes said. "Don't put them around your neck."
