Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993 TAG: 9308250210
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HAYMARKET LENGTH: Medium
Prince William County authorities don't plan to chance provoking about 29 other poisonous serpents in the same house, either, until enough serum is located. After they gather enough of the substance through a nationwide search, county animal wardens plan to enter Drew Yeager's house to seize the snakes.
Yeager, 34, will be charged with keeping a poisonous snake after he is released from Prince William Hospital, police spokeswoman Kim Chinn said. Police also have obtained a search warrant to permit seizure of the snakes, she said.
Yeager was listed in fair condition Tuesday, hospital officials said.
An animal warden visited Yeager's home Sunday but decided against entering when he learned that all the serum on the East Coast was depleted Thursday in a multistate effort to save Yeager's life, Chinn said.
It took 35 vials of antivenin, most of which was flown in from Yeager's cobra apparently bit him as he was trying to help it shed its skin by peeling it. the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the Pittsburgh Zoo, to fight the effects of the venom on Yeager's central nervous system, Dr. John Carey said.
Yeager is suffering from serum sickness, said Roger Roach, a Prince William paramedic. Roach treated Yeager before the snake enthusiast lost consciousness Thursday and has been checking on him since.
"He was terrified," Roach said. "He was trying to give us . . . information as to who to contact."
The antivenin that saved Yeager's life is made from a combination of serums in blood from animals such as horses. The animals are injected with snake venom and develop antibodies to the poison, snake experts said.
Because cobra-bite victims are extremely rare, hospitals don't store the necessary antivenin, officials said. The zoos handed over the stock they could afford to Thursday to save Yeager.
It is illegal to keep wild or exotic animals in the county, and all poisonous snakes are forbidden, Prince William Deputy Animal Warden Pauline Shatswell said.
Once the snakes are in their possession, the animal wardens will give Yeager the opportunity to find a legal and safe place for the snakes to live, or animal control officers will try to find them a new home such as a zoo, she said.
Yeager's cobra apparently bit him as he was trying to help it shed its skin by peeling it, Roach said.
"Apparently, the snake didn't appreciate it," Roach said.
Memo: Shorter in Metro