A teacher has spent the night in hospital after a suspected snake bite at Bibra Lake Primary School on Tuesday.
An Education Department spokesperson said the teacher first realised she may have been bitten by a snake after she noticed two small puncture wounds on her wrist.
She was taken to Fiona Stanley Hospital where she was kept in overnight for observation.
The spokesperson said the teacher had been inside a storeroom that students did not have access to.
“A snake was not sighted by the teacher, and a snake catcher — who was contacted immediately — was unable to locate any snake, or evidence of snakes in the vicinity,” they said.
“The teacher was given immediate first aid and taken to hospital to be checked out as a precaution.
“Two anti-snake devices have been installed in the area as an added protection.”
Under current first-aid advice, a person with suspected snake bite should be kept immobile and their affected limb firmly bandaged.
A spokesperson from South Metropolitan Health Service said that determining the source of a snake bite could be imprecise and may delay critical treatment.
“For this reason, Fiona Stanley Hospital adopts a risk-based approach in line with national practice, treating all snake bite presentations as a potential worst-case scenario,” they said.
“Patients are managed according to their symptoms, and in the absence of symptoms are observed for a minimum of 12 hours to ensure envenomation has not occurred.”
Perth snake catcher Marcus Cosentino — who was not involved in the Bibra Lake incident — said snakes were shy, so the majority of snake bites resulted from accidental contact where a person trod on a snake or unintentionally put their hand on it.
Even though most bites were dry, where the snake did not inject venom, he said anyone with suspected snake bite should still treat it as an emergency and seek treatment urgently.
Mr Cosentino said while venomous snakes such as dugites and tiger snakes were common across Perth, deaths from snake bite were rare.
