Paul O'Grady recovers from bite by UK's only poisonous snake

Published on Wednesday 3 December 2008 21:15

PAUL O'Grady, the TV presenter, is recovering after being bitten by an adder.

He was reaching for a log to throw on his fire when he saw something moving in the wood pile. He looked down to see blood spurting from his arm.

Only when he came face-to-face with a 2ft-long venomous snake did he realise he had been bitten.

O'Grady, 53, drove the snake out of his house using a broom, before phoning the hospital near his home in Ashford, Kent.

He then dressed the wound and searched on the internet to identify the adder, which is Britain's only poisonous snake.

"My arm really started to hurt, and I saw two puncture marks" O'Grady said. "I realised I had been bitten and that it must have been a snake."

Yesterday the Channel 4 presenter was recovering well, and said: "I've come up against a few snakes in my time but normally of the two-legged variety."

O'Grady, who did not require medical attention following the incident on Sunday, said: "There was no bad reaction, thank goodness, although it did hurt."

His spokeswoman said: "He's absolutely fine. He was a bit shaken, as anyone would be, but he's fine now and can see the funny side.

"Apparently this sort of thing is rather commonplace where Paul lives because he is right out in the countryside."

The snake is thought to have entered O'Grady's house after lodging itself inside a piece of firewood.

Scott Murray, a herpetologist at Edinburgh Butterfly and Insect World, said: "Snakes like adders do not generally attack people. They are defensive creatures with very poor eyesight and if they see something big coming towards them they may well bite to defend themselves."