Life-support of 16-year-old turned off after deadly snake bite
Beau Horan, 16, was in the backyard of his family home in Gladstone, Queensland on Monday afternoon when an eastern brown snake bit him on the leg.
The teenager wasn't aware that he had been bitten, and it was only when he collapsed that his family knew something was seriously wrong.
"By the time they found him collapsed, they called an ambulance and it was only then they realised he'd been bitten by a snake," family friend Shaun Connolly told Yahoo News.
Beau was rushed to a nearby hospital before he was medically airlifted to Brisbane where he was put on a life-support machine.
"I'm going off what his mum has told me... she's distraught as you can imagine," Connolly said. "We don't know too much what the circumstances were, but we think he wasn't aware he had been bitten," Shaun said.
Brown snakes are extremely venomous and responsible 41 per cent of snake bites in the country. While fatalities remain relatively low, with two deaths reported on average each year, the potency of their venom is incredibly strong, containing severe neurotoxins that result in progressive paralysis and heart failure.
The family has since had to make the heartbreaking decision of turning off Beau's life support machine, with his mum, Bek Eddy, and two sisters having to cover the unexpected medical and funeral costs.
Connolly has set up a GoFundMe page to help alleviate some of the pressure for the family during these uncertain times.
"It's just so sad," Shaun said.
Beau's family have described him as a "vibrant, compassionate [and] a loving young man" who had a "bright future ahead of him", and they have been left with "indescribable emptiness" following his death.
Image: GoFundMe