At first she thought it was a sting from a hornet or a sharp branch poking her thigh, until she saw something writhing away. “Then I knew I had been bitten by a snake,” says Mrs Oudenhuijzen (55) from Egmond-Binnen. But she never expected that the bite ended up in the hospital: “I didn’t know we have venomous snakes here.”
The wound in her leg is still painful and her fingers and toes still feel numb. “The hospital keeps an eye on it and helped me very well,” Mrs Oudenhuijzen tells NH. “The doctors had never experienced this either. It was of course just bad luck, but for the time being I will not go for a walk there.”
And that ‘there’ is the dune area near Bakkum near the crossing of the Van Speyklaan and Kroftveld. “We went for a bike ride last Saturday and when we stopped along the path, I suddenly felt a sharp intense pain. I actually didn’t panic at all, because I thought it was a harmless snake. Later on, I started to feel nauseous and dizzy and not feeling well at all.”
Rare
Her husband thinks of the bite of a viper and they decide to go to the doctor’s office in the evening just to be sure. They send her to the hospital where they also contact the National Poison Information Center. “A snakebite is quite rare, so they didn’t really know what to do with it.”
An antiserum is not administered and ultimately is not necessary. Then you have to be sure that you have been bitten by a viper and an antiserum often has nasty side effects. “After the snakebite we swam in the sea and I think that was my luck. That may have flushed the poison out of the wound.”
Dumped
The couple from Egmond-Binnen has contacted dune manager PWN, the municipality and also camping Bakkum to warn about the snake. “We were told by the forest ranger that vipers do not occur here at all. So it is also possible that someone has dumped their snakes. If that is the case, I am very sorry. You do not know what you are doing to someone. We especially do not want anything to happen to a child.”
PWN warns: “Stay on the beaten track”
According to PWN, the manager of the North Holland Dune Reserve, the bite could have come from a viper, but they do not rule out that it could also be another type of snake. “We have to investigate that, because this species is not normally found in the dune. There are no venomous snakes here.”
According to PWN, it could therefore also be an expanded hose. The dune manager talks to specialists to find out what kind of snake it is and what can be done about it.
In the meantime, PWN warns to stay on the beaten track. “The chance of encountering a snake on a path or on the road is very small, so stay on the roads and paths. This is also good for the animals that live in the dunes.”