Shocked, the boy who was dragged into the swimming pool by a snake is gradually recovering
A five-year-old boy who was struck by a python and dragged into a pool in New South Wales is recovering well, after his grandfather and dad saved his life.
Ben Blake was with his son Beau at his grandfather’s pool at Ocean Shores near Byron Bay when the python struck the boy yesterday.
“I just started kicking back on the lounge, just started enjoying a tin and all of a sudden it was on,” Ben told NBN News.
The three-metre python came “out of the blue” and latched into Beau’s ankle.
“Before he even hit the bottom of the pool it was completely wrapped around the leg… it was from the bite right up to around his knee joint,” he said.
Beau’s 76-year-old grandfather Alan Blake instantly jumped into the pool to save the little boy before Ben was able to remove the snake from his son’s leg.
“I looked in and there was the thing around his legs so I just jumped straight in to grab him,” Alan said.
Alan then passed Beau up to his father.
“I just grabbed it as close as I could to the head, squeezed and pulled,” the five-year-old’s father said.
Beau is a little subdued today after yesterday’s panic.
He went to hospital where the wound was cleaned.
“He’s an absolute trooper, once we cleaned up the blood and told him he wasn’t going to die because it wasn’t a poisonous snake, he was pretty good,” Ben told 3AW earlier.
“I think the python was waiting for a victim to come along, a bird or something, and Beau was it.”
Ben released the snake back into the bush after the incident, however, the creature wasn’t too keen to slither off.
“He went back to the scene of the crime, the naughty thing,” Blake said.
Snakes are common in Northern NSW but the family had never seen one close to the pool.
“We used to check for spiders around the pool but now we’ll look for snakes,” Ben said.
“If I wasn’t that close he would have been underwater and who knows what would have happened.”
Once little Beau has recovered, he will have quite the story to tell his friends at school.
