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Girl, 6, dies after brown snake bite

Doctors did not know she had been bitten by the deadly snake until it was too late.

A six-year-old NSW girl has died after she was bitten by a brown snake.

The girl was bitten just after 3pm on Friday near Walgett in northern New South Wales but nobody realised what had happened until several hours later.

She was taken to a hospital in Walgett, where doctors administered anti-venom, but her condition got worse so she was airlifted to Sydney Children’s Hospital and put on life support.

She continued to deteriorate until she died on Saturday.

“I believe the family didn’t know she’d been bitten and, by the time they’d realised, she was comatose,” Walgett Shire deputy mayor and registered nurse Jane Keir told the Sydney Morning Herald .

“The little girl could have been on the edge of Sydney and the result would have been the same.”

If you are bitten by a snake ensure someone calls Triple Zero immediately. If the bite is on a limb, apply a pressure immobilisation bandage but not so tight it will cut off circulation. If it’s not on a limb, apply pressure to the bite with your hand.

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