Heroic father accepts to let the world’s most venomous snake bite him to protect his two-year-old daughter

A heroic dad has recalled the desperate moment he threw himself between a deadly brown snake and his two-year-old daughter.

Jake Coombe, from Tailem Bend about an hour’s drive east of Adelaide, saved his daughter Alba from being bitten on Monday, but ended up a victim of the reptile and had to be rushed to hospital.

The pair had arrived home from an outing and Mr Coombe begun to unpack his bags while his daughter played in the hallway.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the infant had caught sight of something in the doorway of the garage and was going to investigate.

Little Alba had locked eyes with an eastern brown snake, a highly venomous species of snake whose bite can kill small children in just minutes.

Quick as a flash, the brave dad grabbed his daughter as the snake went to strike.

As he launched his daughter to safety, the reptile clamped down on his foot and gave him a ‘dry bite’ – meaning no venom was released.

Mr Coombe, who spent a night in hospital, said he keeps thinking about what could have happened to his daughter if he had arrived just a second too late.

‘Maybe it would have been a different story if Alba got to it – she could have picked it up and wouldn’t have got away so quickly,’ he told The Messenger.

‘Better me than her, that’s for sure.’

Facebook users were quick to applaud the brave dad for his quick-thinking.

‘Well done mate. That’s a loving courageous act. Get well soon,’ one man wrote.

‘What an awesome dad. Doing his job protecting his little girl,’ another said.

‘Super dad. Deserves a beer or two,’ a third commented.

Residents along the Murray River were recently warned by the SES to be on high alert for snakes as they travelled out of flooded areas.

The close call in South Australia comes just days after a snake was seen flattening itself in order to squeeze under a door at a home in Melbourne.

Terrifying footage showed an eastern brown snake flattening its body to almost half its original height and slithering under a door frame.

Experts recommend buying draught stoppers for external doors and ensuring all doors are a tight fit against the ground to keep the reptiles out.