This thread reminds me of a story:
We always tell people, if you are bit by a snake, bring the snake to the ED (for identification). Inherent in the request is the preamble, "bring it in dead."
Many years ago when I was working for Air Car at UNC, we weren't flying for some reason--weather, maintenance, something--so we were tasking in the ED. Two guys walk into the ambulance entrance, both of whom are Asians. One is holding a cotton/canvas sack, the other is holding his wrapped hand above his head.
Charles nurse goes over, tells them, "hey, you can't come in this way, you have to go through the front through the lobby and triage."
Man says in broken and bad English, "He bit by snek, bad bite, bad snek," pointing to his friend. Friend is pale, sweating, he doesn't look too good.
Charge nurse says, "OK, well, come with me," and puts him in a room. Not a hard-walled room, but a bay with the curtains separating you from the other patient beds.
Doc walks over, "hey, what's wrong?"
Guy says, ""He bit by snek, bad bite, bad snek," pointing to his friend. "We work in toxicology lab, we work on bad sneks. Big, mean snek get loose, bite him." They had walked over from the lab on campus.
Doc asks, "what's in the bag?"
Guy says, "Big, bad snek."
Doc says, "OK, let me see it."
Guy opens bag, you see all this movement inside the bag, doc shrieks, "close the bag! Close the bag! My God, what IS that thing!?"
Guy says, "King cobra....he pissed now."
The snake was still alive, a for-real, alive king cobra. They called the lab and animal control, they ended up whisking it away back to the lab.
The man got pretty sick and was admitted but he lived.
