A young boy who had his hand bitten by a venomous snake while playing a sand pit at a pre-school playground was taken to hospital by his family after nursery staff ‘didn’t call for help’

Despite being bitten by a snake nursery staff didn’t call for help, claims one family(Image: WRAL)

A family have hit out at a nursery after their son was bitten by a snake and staff allegedly failed to call for an ambulance.

The child was bitten by a deadly venomous copperhead snake while playing outside in a sand pit at the New Beginnings Child Enrichment Centre in North Carolina. In a photo shared by the family, the boys hand can be seen hugely swollen from the aftermath of the bite.

Despite the boys distress from the venom, nursery staff are accused of failing to call emergency services and initially claimed that he just had a reaction to a splinter.

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Copperhead snakes are common across parts of the the US(Image: Getty Images)

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According to Brook Cooper, the boy’s Auntie, the Nursery boss later revealed the true nature of the injury when the family arrived to take the child home.

Speaking to the local press, Brook added: “The director got up and said he got snakebite. My first thought was, why didn’t they call 911? My second thing was like, do the other parents even know?”

Local outlets also confirmed with emergency services that they were not called out to the scene, with a nursery worker on site also killing the snake at the scene.

It was only when the family saw the extent of the bite that he was taken to the hospital and received treatment, although there is no news on his current condition.

Snake bites are a common call for ambulances and police in North Carolina, although they rarely carry anti-venom, response teams are trained and ready to help with snake bites to reduce the pain and swelling.

The New Beginnings Child Enrichment Centre in North Carolina(Image: New Beginnings Child Enrichment Center/Facebook)

Copperhead snakes are very common in parts of the U.S, with bites often leading to huge swelling and causing the victim to feel nausea and even begin bleeding from the venom.

The news comes just weeks after a one-year-old in India also managed to survive a deadly cobra after biting it himself and killing the snake.

The incident occurred in Mohachchhi Bankatwa, a remote village in the Indian state of Bihar, which borders Nepal to the north.

The little boy, Govind Kumar, collapsed shortly after the encounter and was rushed to a nearby doctor before being transferred to a hospital in Bettiah.

The boy had somehow gotten hold of the snake after it crawled into his home.

Hospital chief Dr. Duvakant Mishra said: “Govind was referred here after fainting soon after chewing on the live snake. He was unconscious when he arrived.”

His grandma watched the incident and tried her best to get the snake away, but before she knew it, he had sunk his teeth into the cobra, killing it in the process.