As the cast of an old Western or outdoor survival film makes its way through the jungle or through the sandy desert, one of the characters is bitten by a snake.
Our savior instantly swoops in to remove the venom from a snake bite by cutting into the incision and sucking it out. Maybe you've heard this story before.
Is sucking the poison out of a snake bite a safe and effective method for saving a victim's life, even if it appears effective on the big screen?
Dr. Calello says that sucking on a snake bite is ineffective and sometimes harmful since you risk spreading poison into your mouth.
This is especially hazardous if you have an open wound in your mouth, according to How Stuff Works. As this creates a direct route for the poison to enter the bloodstream.
Additionally, you can increase your risk of infection from the snake bite by transporting bacteria from your mouth into the wound.
Instead of sucking on a snake bite with our mouth, you may be considering employing the sucking equipment included in snake bite first aid packages.
The Sawyer Extractor pump is a snake bite suction device that has been studied in depth in a 2004 scientific study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Using fake venom, researchers determined that the device removed between 0.04% and 2% of the amount of mock poison spread, deeming it "practically useless."