That is so true oklajeff, bureaucracy gets in the way of people's lives. It is also about the safety of the devices and insurance companies having concerns and conflicts of interest perhaps. Antivenom is a big thing these days, the $700 vial of antivenom can cost close to $30,000 in some hospitals simply because of hospital policies and insurance companies.

Antivenom isn't the sure bet that many people are made out to believe, they say, "I'll just go to hospital and get antivenom, it will all be ok". But many people have reactions to antivenom, they also can lose limbs, have kidney failure, even have heart attacks... This isn't the rarity, it is common.

The hospital in Quito Equador was able to reduce these effects down to practically zero, just by shocking the area and making sure the venom was neutralised.

I thought that it would be good after 8 years, to come back to this thread and add a few updates.

1) One very important thing is that the modern stun guns SHOULD NOT BE USED!. The voltage is much too high, they can be lethal, and the electricity is possibly AC as well. The bottom line is they are dangerous and they don't work to neutralise the venom. The idea that more voltage is better is simply not true. The research shows that the older style of stun guns which are 75Kv or less are fine and are safe if used appropriately, if you don't have heart disease or a pacemaker. TAZERS don't work as they produce AC as well as DC. This was one of the reasons some of the older studies were not able to prove this method effective.

2) You must use two wires, there needs to be a return path or ground for the shock. A small engine uses the body of the engine as it's ground so that the electricity can flow. If you don't provide a ground such as touching the back side of the limb against the engine body, you don't get much electricity flowing and the venom will not be fully neutralised.

3) The Italian team published another 4 papers discussing results and options for treatment of snake bite. These are: "Structural Modification of Proteins by Direct Electric Current from Low Voltage"; "Inactivation of Crotalus atrox Venom Hemorrhagic Activity by Direct Current Exposure Using Hens Egg Assay", "Inhibition of Hemorragic Snake Venom Components: Old and New Approaches" and "Accelerated removal of deamidated proteins and endogenous electric fields: possible implications".

The head researcher told me that they had to move onto other areas of study, but there were still many areas which can be explored in this area of study.

4) I have found some very good accounts of people using TENS units to treat Brown Recluse bites and snake bites with success. The TENS units were put on for 20 - 30 minutes and put up high. In all cases reported the swelling went down and the pain left almost immediately.

5) Cattle prods (hot shots) have been used with success by ranchers and vets, (TAZERS and modern stun guns were used and found that they didn't work but changing to a cattle prod produced great results).

6) This is one that I thought I would never report, I received a credible account from someone who shocked their brother's hand which had just been bitten by a pigmy rattler. It was swelling fast and very painful. They shocked it well with leads from a Belarus tractor's battery! (could have been 24 volts) The bite stopped swelling, the pain left and he started to recover. The Italian papers used 12 volts DC and it seems that it is possible to have the low voltage penetrate the skin and neutralise the venom. I suspect that sweat would be an electrolyte which would break down the resistance of the skin allowing the low voltage to penetrate into the tissues.

The accounts still trickle in about all sorts of things that this seems to help with. One lady is using it in conjuction with hydrogen peroxide, to neutralise the lethal stroke like effects of a toxic weed that her cattle sometimes eat. Others have used it on boils and dog bites to kill the infection. There is still lots of potential for this to be studied, but a TENS unit is safe and legal everywhere and it doesn't hurt to try it on the way to the hospital now does it?

Hope that is helpful information, and if any of you have used this personally with success I would love to hear your experiences.

Cheers,
Macgyver.