Venom ER

I caught a bit of the show on Animal Planet last night. Sean seems like an outstanding representative of the snake hobbyist community. With that said, let me acknowledge that I don't keep hots, and am not highly educated on envenomation (outside of our local Missouri species).

So, what is the opinion of the show from people more experienced with hots? Was it positive? Negative? Good/bad publicity?

I liked it, because of the positive spin it put on the herps not being "bad." However, like you, I am not into hots, so there may have been something wrong with the presentation that was beyond my limited comprehension.

By the way, it's a series of shows, in case you wanted to be looking out for future episodes...

I have known Sean foe several years.

And I can assure you that he has the herp community in mind everytime he opens his mouth. He would never put our hobby in a compromising position for any reason. My son recieved chemotherapy treatment at Loma Linda University Medical Center where Sean works. We lived in Loma Linda for several years and I worked at a reptiles store there during that time. Every conversation I have ever had with Sean has been educating to say the least. Sean is a herper, who happens to be a doctor and one hell of a nice guy.

As for the show, I thought it was great! It shows you that Sean is extremely dedicated to the study of Crotalus venom and it's affect on the human body. I also thought it was cool to see Seans compassion. He was obviously disturbed by the death of his patient. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen children die of cancer at that hospital and the doctors dont flinch. I know they have to protect themselves from attachment to an extent. But it was refreshing to see Sean's reaction to his patients death.

On a side note. I thought you guys would get a kick out of this. Loma Linda is a Seventh Day Adventist community. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about them and that is not my intention with this post. It takes a bit of getting used to living in Loma Linda because most of the community is ran with the church's beliefs in mind. For instance, they do not eat meat. ALL of the fast food joints offer vegetarian food along with their regular menu. They do not work on Saturday because it is the Sabbath, so even governmental agencies such as the Post Office does not work either. So you DO get mail on Sunday, but you DONT get it on Saturday. Nobody sells liqour on Saturdays either. Kinda difficult to get used to, but I definitely enjoyed living there. I just wish it was under different circumstances.

For. lol

I found it outstanding and very well scripted. Sean is one hell of a guy, let alone a doctor. I found it really interesting on how the Southern Pacific Rattlesnake's venom seems to be evolving more toward nuero. I hope I'll be able to meet Dr. Bush one day.