A Queensland man who was thought to have died from a snake bite on the weekend when helping a friend did not have any venom in his body, a toxicology report has found.
Donald Morrison, who was in his 60s, was attending a reunion at Koumala state school in Queensland on Saturday when he was reportedly bitten on the arm and chest while removing the reptile that had coiled around his friend’s leg.
Morrison collapsed and was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived, the Queensland Ambulance Service said. They performed CPR and used a defibrillator but he died at the scene.
At the time, paramedics said his symptoms suggested he was bitten by a brown snake.
However, there was no snake venom in Morrison’s system, the family said in a statement on Thursday. They now believe he died from an unrelated medical condition.
“We have received preliminary findings from the coroner’s office which confirm that there was no snake venom in Donny’s system,” the family said according to local media reports.
“This therefore rules out snake bite as a contributing factor or cause of death. It is believed that Donny may have had an underlying medical condition that he was unaware of.”
The family thanked first responders and the Koumala community who provided assistance on Saturday night.
Morrison’s death was being investigated, a spokesperson for the Queensland coroners court said on Thursday.
The Queensland Ambulance Service deputy commissioner Claire Bertenshaw said on Sunday that Morrison had likely been bitten on the arm and chest. She noted that sometimes snakes delivered “dry bites” without injecting venom.
