A man in America had venomous snakes bite him 172 times during his lifetime. His condition became serious 20 times and he barely survived. He died in 2011 at the age of 100. Known as Snake Man in America.
His name was Bill Haast, He wanted to build immunity by repeatedly letting himself get bit by snakes. He had been fascinated by snakes since his childhood years. For this reason, he chose a profession where first of all he started showing off snake-handling skills and then opened his reptile display of snakes. We will explain how snakes bit him 172 times further ahead.
Later, in Florida, he opened a Miami Serpentarium, containing all types of venomous snakes and arranged for performances there for visitors. His main business was to supply raw venom for making antivenom against snake bites. He used to supply 36,000 samples annually to laboratories until the 1990s for this purpose.
At one time, Bill Haast cared for over 10,000 snakes from all over the world, including many venomous sea snakes, African snakes, cottonmouths, rattlesnakes, cobras, kraits, green mambas, tiger snakes, and vipers.
Reason Behind Snake Bite
There was a special reason why Bill Haast was bitten 173 times in his lifetime by snakes. He had to catch deadly snakes with his naked hands and force open their jaws. Then he inserted the fangs into a rubber membrane, collecting drops in glass vials. All this had to be repeated thousands of times to produce enough venom to make antivenom.
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It was during this period that Haast used to get bitten by snakes. He would live through it sometime, and at other times his condition would worsen. To come out of this and to make the process easier, Haast started infusing his body with minute doses of venom from the cobra so that he could develop immunity from snake bites. With time progress, he increased the dosage incrementally. This proved advantageous as he became less affected by most snake bites.
However, many doctors had warned Bill Haast that he would die if he continued with such practices. That didn’t happen. However, in 1954, when bitten by a blue krait, one of the world’s deadliest snakes, he barely survived. Typically, no one survives a bite from this snake. Ironically, the snake died ten days later.
Gradually, Haast’s blood became such that it could cure the victims of bites of poisonous snakes. It saved more than 20 lives all over the world. He died at the age of 100 years. He declared that the genuine secret to his long life was delicately taking controlled dose of the venom. Even when he crossed the age of 90 years, he is fit and active, and his vigor does not diminish afterwards.
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