Drouin parents Lee and Teneille Hawke got the type of ‘phone call in late October that all parents dread.
It was from the principal of Drouin Primary School Brad Wheller telling them that their 12 year-old son Deakin was just hanging on to his life.
On a weeklong grade six trip to Canberra Deakin had twice been bitten by an eastern brown snake regarded as the second most venomous snake in the world after the taipan, had to be revived by CPR when he collapsed, his breathing stopped, had no pulse beat, had a suspected cardiac arrest, been rushed to hospital by ambulance and was in the intensive care unit at Canberra Hospital.
It was touch and go.
Great teamwork by the seven school staff and one parent also on the trip to Canberra, paramedics and medical staff at the hospital saved Deakin’s life.
He’s now back for his final weeks of primary school after missing about a month as a result of a reaction to the anti-venom he was given to counteract the snake’s poison and heading to secondary school next year.
It was near the end of the day and during some free time at the motel where he and 66 other grade six students from Drouin and the staff were staying when Deakin was bitten.
He didn’t see the snake before or after it bit him – “it felt like a prickle bush,” he said – but was seen by some of the four or five other boys with him looking for rabbits in an adjoining paddock.
Deakin said he sprinted to the “yard area”, something he now knows was not the right choice, but can’t recall much else other than Mr Wheller yelling to the other students outside to get into their rooms.