Player Dies From Snake Bite During Field Hockey Training Session

A field hockey player died this week from a snake bite in Australia.

According to Yahoo News, Karl Berry, 26, was training in the suburb of Marrara on Tuesday night when he was bitten by a snake. Paramedics were called to the scene but they were not able to save the young field hockey player.

ABC reports that Berry spotted the snake, a western brown, and decided to remove it. The young man successfully got the snake off the field and probably didn’t realize that he had received a snake bite. After dealing with the snake he went for a run.

But Berry never returned.

The field hockey player’s father, Ian, said: “The bite mark on him was on the ring finger… Just a graze. They didn’t even see it until they went looking for it… He went to do his warm-up run for his training, and he never came back from it.”

St John ambulance spokesman Craig Garraway said that the venom circulated quickly through Berry’s body because he was in the middle of a workout. He was taken to a nearby hospital but died on Wednesday night.

Garraway said: “He had signs and symptoms of snake bite. He was becoming quite ill… He’d been on a two-kilometre run, so obviously circulation had increased during that run.”

Ian Berry said that he is not sure why his son picked up the snake. The hockey player’s father said that they are still trying to uncover exactly what happened. One report claims that a kid at the field was playing near the snake at the field and Karl rushed to make sure that the child was safe.

Ian said: “I was very, very surprised (that he picked up the snake). He’s actually quite knowledgeable (about snakes). I’ve had it relayed to me… one of the kids had, in fact, picked it up and he took it off him.”