New Zealand environmentalist Pete Bethune remains upbeat six days after his leg doubled in size from a poisonous snake bite in Costa Rica.
Bethune had been on a patrolling mission in the jungle of Corcovado National Park when he was bitten in the calf by a fer-de-lance snake on December 28.
“I felt this bang in my calf and I knew straight away it was a snake, turned around and this fer-de-lance snake went crawling away from me. And he got a good bite too,” Bethune told 1 NEWS from his hospital bed the day after the incident.
“I got a ton of poison in me and straight away I went into shock.”
His condition is improving after being bitten by one of Central America’s most dangerous snakes.
The 55-year-old said he crawled almost three kilometres back to shore before being carried by members of his team to the local coastguard ship as his condition deteriorated.
Bethune was injected with anti-venom once he reached the hospital, where his left leg remains double the size of his right leg.
In a Facebook live video today, Bethune said he "saw out 2020" from his hospital bed and "what a sucky year that was".
He said he has been getting little sleep while he continues to recover, saying he felt "unsettled, my pulse going up and down, I can feel my blood pressure sort of surging away and sort of pain in the leg".
However, the "sharp pain" in his leg has since been replaced by a "nagging sort of dull thud".
Bethune said doctors had increased his pain medication "but it takes a while for that to kick in".
Bethune called his recovery progress a "long journey" as doctors in Costa Rica expressed concern his leg would never fully recover from the incident.
"One of the doctors was explaining to me, he said, 'Look, this is not a linear journey, Pete, where your body just progressively processes the poisons and the toxins and that's the end of it, where it just gets progressively better.'"
While there were concerns Bethune had developed kidney and liver function damage, tests carried out yesterday came back negative. Some muscle damage was detected, however.
Bethune remained upbeat despite the news, saying, "I'll settle for that right now, thanks - little bit of muscle damage."
"It'll be OK. I've got too much muscle in my calf anyway."
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