A dad has revealed the moment he heroicly stepped in front of his toddler daughter to protect her from a deadly snake, only to get bitten himself.
Jake Coombe, from Adelaide, was unpacking on Monday after returning from a holiday when he spotted his daughter, Alba, become distracted by something.
Just in the nick of time, he noticed it was a snake that had attracted her attention, and immediately sprung into action.
“She was carrying a fishing reel and I saw her drop it and run for something and I looked over and I saw something flare up at her,” Mr Coombe told The Advertiser.
“So I ran over and grabbed her, it flared up and got me. I knew there was a chance (of being bitten) but I couldn’t risk letting my daughter cop the bite.”
Mr Coombe, a baker and footy coach, said the reality of being bitten was initially overtaken with relief that he had successfully removed Alba from harm’s way.
Before getting himself to Murray Bridge Hospital, he called his father-in-law to help find the snake after it hid itself somewhere in the home.
“I stayed overnight in hospital, luckily it was a dry bite but maybe it would have been a different story if Alba got to it – she could have picked it up and wouldn’t have got away so quickly,” he said.
The dad added it was “better me than her, that’s for sure”.
The bite, on the top of his foot, caused a rash but he said medical staff weren’t too concerned about it.
He was discharged from hospital the next day.
While he knew snakes were part of living on acreage in Australia, seeing one come so close to his daughter “was a shock”, he said.
“I keep thinking about what would have happened to my daughter if I didn’t see it.”