Woman suffers snake bite after eastern brown gets caught in her shoeEli GreenNewsWireWed, 24 December 2025 7:30AM
A woman is recovering from multiple snake bites after a highly venomous reptile got caught in the loop of her shoe.
Snake catcher Cory Kerewaro received the “terrifying” call from paramedics after they were unable to treat the woman, with the snake somehow slithering into a loop of fabric at the back of her shoe and becoming “completely wedged”.
The snake catcher said the incident in Sydney’s southwest was “without a doubt the most bizarre call I’ve ever attended”.
“As soon as I saw it, I confirmed 100 per cent that it was an eastern brown snake. What I saw next was something I still can’t quite believe … the odds of that happening are almost nil. It was absolutely unreal,” he wrote on social media.
Eastern brown snakes are the second most venomous snake in the world, with one bite having the power to kill more than 200,000 mice.
Upon realising the danger of the situation, Mr Kerewaro said “everything changed”, with the woman standing on a road on a 38C day.
“This wasn’t adrenaline anymore, it was a sudden feeling of heaviness, The reality hit hard,” he said.
“Brown snakes are highly reactive when stressed, and there was nowhere to take cover, nowhere to approach from safely, and no room for error. Any sudden movement could cause the snake to react.
“If it reacted, it could bite her. If it bit her, the consequences could be fatal.”
Luckily, they were given a “small window” with the snake less likely to react due to the heat, and Mr Kerewaro was able to pin it.
“The snake was wedged so tightly that it couldn’t be moved forward or backward, the only option was to cut the heel loop open to release it,” he said.
“When she was finally free, the relief was overwhelming.”
The woman had been geocaching and was looking in a garden bed when she “felt something touch her leg, ran onto the road, looked down and realised there was a snake in her shoe”.
The woman suffered multiple snake bites in the ordeal however was able to be treated and is now recovering in hospital.
Originally published as Woman suffers snake bite after eastern brown gets caught in her shoe
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