PCL Week 2: An Unwelcome Guest

Here's PCL Week 2.

Enjoy.

Tim

Part A
One evening, after a day spent trekking in Eastern Gippsland with her boyfriend Tom, Sophie, who is 20 years old, returns to her tent to find a snake curled up beside her sleeping bag. Sophie screams and grabs the closest thing, a small shovel, and tries to kill the snake. In her panic she hits the tent and misses -- the snake strikes and bites her on the right forearm and then disappears under the tent flap. It was so dark in the tent that Sophie couldn’t really see the snake properly.

As soon as the snake is gone, the enormity of the situation hits her -- she has been bitten by a snake, maybe a highly venomous one! Her heart is pounding, she is gasping for breath, her legs shake and she feels so faint that she has to sit down with her head between her knees. Recalling images from Western movies, and unsure what else to do, she sucks the bite site a few times, and places a loose bandage around it.

On hearing Sophie’s scream, Tom, who was getting water from the creek, runs over to help. On learning of the snakebite he admits that he doesn’t really know what to do either, so they quickly decide to walk to the nearest inhabited campsite more than 10 km away.

During the walk, Sophie starts to feel pain in her right armpit. She develops a headache, is nauseated, and begins to feel confused. She then starts vomiting. Tom tries to remain calm but is very worried. Not knowing what else to do, he encourages Sophie to keep walking.