‘Better me than her’: Brave dad gets bitten by snake as he tries to save young daughter

QZQNEWSMarch 11, 2023

'Better me than her': Brave father gets bitten by snake while trying to save young daughter

MURRAYLANDS, AUSTRALIA: A father-of-a-young girl is now in hospital after being bitten while trying to protect his baby girl from a snake. Jake Coombe from Tailem Bend, South Australia, said it was instinctive for him to try to save his child, Alba, 2, when he saw something unusual heading her way. Coombe said: “She was carrying a fishing reel and I saw her drop it and run towards something and I looked up and saw something flare up towards her.”

Coombe recalled that he ran alongside his daughter and took her away, but was attacked in the process. “So I ran and grabbed it, it ignited and grabbed me,” he said. The father-daughter duo had just returned from vacation when the attack happened. “I knew there was a chance (of being bitten) but I couldn’t risk letting my daughter get bitten,” Coombe said, adding that it took him a while to understand the extent. of his injury as he was completely focused on getting his daughter to safety.

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“Better Me Than Her”

Coombe said he had to spend the night in the hospital to be kept under observation. “I spent the night in hospital, luckily it was a dry bite, but maybe it would have been a different story if Alba had it – she could have picked it up and wouldn’t have left if quickly,” he said. However, despite the injuries, the man was happy to have saved his daughter. “Better me than her, that’s for sure,” he said.

“A shock”: Coombe’s stepfather confides

While the father was protecting the child, it was his grandfather who spotted the snake first. “I can’t stop thinking about what would have happened to my daughter if I hadn’t seen it,” he said, according to 7News. Coombe’s father-in-law, who alerted him to the snake’s presence, said living in the area made detecting snakes a regular occurrence, but it was always “a shock” for him to be so close.