Deadly Snake Bites Man After Coiling Tightly Around His Body, Victim Dead

An elderly man died of multiple organ failure after being bitten by a giant deadly snake in Tasmania.

Winston Fish, 78, died early this year, but details about the cause of death were made public in a coroner's report last week.

The snake attack took place on Jan. 28 when the farmer was working on his sheep farm in Hobart. He was on a quad bike with his pet dog when he came across the giant tiger snake.

The snake tightly wrapped itself around the man's arm and body and bit him, the New Zealand Herald reported.

The dog managed to escape the scene and went home where Fish lived with his long-term friend Judy Hall.

"Ms Hall, who was present at the residence, thought that Mac's return alone and his unusual behavior indicated that something had happened to Mr Fish," coroner Olivia McTaggart wrote in the report, the New Zealand Herald reported.

When Hall went out to search for Fish, she found him lying on the ground next to his quad bike. The snake was still "latched onto his right hand, with Fish holding its head with both hands to squeeze it".

"She saw that it had wrapped around Mr Fish's right arm up to his neck and its body was moving around," the coroner said, adding the farmer was conscious at the time.

Hall alerted her neighbor who arrived at the scene with his son and a friend. In an affidavit, the neighbor's son revealed they made efforts to remove the "large black snake" that had coiled itself tightly around Fish. When they failed, they were forced to cut the snake's head off with a knife, the news outlet reported.

A local doctor arrived at the scene and rushed Fish to a hospital where he was admitted to the intensive care unit. Fish died on Jan. 30.

Donald Ritchey, the state's forensic pathologist, said Fish died from multiple organ failure that was caused by the snake's venom.

McTaggart reportedly said Fish's death was a "tragic but rare occurrence... The risk of death from snake bites to members of the public is extremely low... There have been three deaths from snake bites, including Mr Fish, since 1948."