Toddler bitten by deadly snake

The snake sank its fangs into her foot

A toddler bitten by a poisonous snake while playing on a beach is being treated in a hospital's high dependency unit.

Two-year-old Isobella Evans was attacked by an adder as she played in the baking weather near her grandparents' beach hut at Rotherslade Bay on the Gower peninsula.

The snake sank its fangs into her foot and she collapsed to the sand, screaming in agony.

Her parents carried her to their car and rushed her to hospital where doctors found two puncture marks on her heel which had turned black.

She wasn't well at all and she has been put on a heart and respiratory monitor for two nights Father Ian Evans

The toddler was given an antidote and put on a heart and lung monitor at Swansea's Singleton Hospital.

On Friday night she was said to be improving even though her leg was still swollen from the snake venom.

It is thought she wandered into a clump of grass where the snake bit her as she stood on it.

Urgent warning

Holidaymakers sunning themselves on the beach ran to her aid and her parents were on hand to whisk her five miles to hospital.

An urgent warning was later issued to holidaymakers to be wary of adders.

Isobella's father, Ian Evans said: "We didn't really notice it at the time but then she started writhing with agony.

"I had actually seen a small snake earlier on, so I put two and two together. She wasn't well at all and she has been put on a heart and respiratory monitor for two nights.

"Snake bites can be fatal and there can be heart complications. I was quite worried to see her linked up to the machines."

Mr Evans, originally from Derwen Fawr, Swansea, but who now living near High Wycombe, Bucks, was keeping a round-the-clock vigil at the hospital with wife Sian.

It is very rare for people to suffer so badly - I don't think there have been more than a handful of deaths in the last century Biologist Paul Llewellyn

Both sets of grandparents, David and Sheila Rees, from Mumbles and Clive and Carol Evans from Derwen Fawr, are also staying at the little girl's bedside.

Mr Evans added: "Isobella is quite grizzly and her leg is very swollen but she is getting better.

"The consultant was quite concerned to start with as he doesn't often see snake bites but they have now said she could be out of hospital in a couple of days."

The common adder is the UK's only venomous snake, but it is less aggressive than most snakes and its bite is rarely fatal to humans. It is also a protected species.

"It is very rare for people to suffer so badly. I don't think there have been more than a handful of deaths in the last century," said Swansea University retired biologist Paul Llewellyn who worked with snakes for 30 years.

"The snakes would do a runner if you went towards them but if you stand on them their first line of defence is to move you by biting you."