Flip-flop warning after woman was bitten by an adder in country park and left in ‘excruciating pain’ while recovering in hospital

A woman has warned others not to wear flip-flops in while out and about in the countryside after she was bitten by an adder while walking her dogs.

Tracey Evans is still in hospital after she was bitten on big toe by the UK’s only venomous snake in Alver Valley Country Park in Gosport on Sunday morning.

The 53-year-old who lives in the area, had taken her dogs Hector and Skyler out for a walk ahead of her daughter’s 17th birthday party, when she was bitten and suddenly felt ‘excruciating pain’.

She told MailOnline: ‘We were on an open gravel pathway in a country park when I felt a sharp pain like a bramble on my foot.

‘I shouted “ow” and that’s when my friend shouted that it had been a snake, an adder, that had bitten me.’

Tracey and her friend grabbed their three dogs quickly before zooming off to the local walk-in medical centre.

Despite being in a lot of pain, all Tracey could think about was her daughter’s birthday party that she did not want to miss.

After speaking to the toxicologist at the local hospital for an hour she was then raced to the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth’s emergency department.

She added: ‘No one in the hospital had dealt with this before, so there was a lot of information, with doctors talking to toxicology.

‘Anti-venom had to come across from Southampton which was put in a taxi. It took quite a while to get here though.

‘I was finally given it at the same time as my daughter’s party.

‘At the time I was panicking because of the unknown. No one had really dealt with it before, and everyone was doing their own research.

‘Doctors were even coming in to see me just because they hadn’t seen an adder bite in person before.’

Tracey, who has three daughters – one of whom is currently taking her A Levels – is still in the hospital today on morphine as she waits for the swelling in her foot and legs to go down.

While the pain has now mostly subsided, her leg is still ‘really itchy’.

The mother-of-three, who works for a dry-cleaning company called Pressing Needs and helps drive vans for a delivery service, said she had ‘learnt a valuable lesson’ – ‘don’t wear flip-flops, even though it’s sunny’.

‘There’s an awful lot of people who do not know we have snakes in the UK but they are known in this area and every year I hear someone say they have spotted an adder,’ she said.

‘But I have always walked my dogs there for five years and I’ve never seen an adder.

‘There’s also a big children’s playground surrounded by the grassland within the country park. They are everywhere but lots of people aren’t aware.

‘I will be much more vigilant in the future now and won’t wear flip flops while walking the dogs.

‘I may go to paths that have a higher footfall in the future. Nobody else was around when we were walking, which is when they come out and bask in the sunshine.

‘Adder bites are very rare and they only bite if they feel threatened so I must have stepped on it.’

Tracey will remain in hospital for the night and will be reassessed in the morning depending on the swelling in her foot and her blood toxicology report.

She added: ‘When I get home, I will take my daughter out in her new car. I haven’t even seen it yet so that will be something we will do when I get out of hospital.’

Last summer there was a surge in adder sightings across the UK, alarming some families who had been on staycations on Britain’s beaches.

The majority of the reports had come from coastal areas where the snakes were basking in the sand dunes.

A study by Clinical Toxicology journal last year revealed that more people than ever before were reporting injuries caused by snakebites.

While the majority came from exotic snakes being kept as pets in the UK, the number being bitten by adders also rose.

Each year, between 50 and 100 people are bitten in the UK but three in four victims have only a ‘negligible reaction’.

Those who are elderly or frail, however, can die without urgent treatment.

Since 1876 the Reptile and Amphibian Conservation Trust said there has been 14 recorded human deaths from adder bites, with the latest being in 1975.

This article by Eirian Jane Prosser was first published by The Daily Mail on 23 May 2023. Lead Image: Each year, between 50 and 100 people are bitten by adder’s in the UK but three in four victims have only a ‘negligible reaction’.

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