Mother suing after son dies from suspected snake bite on school excursion

[davidc4430]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-05/mother-sues-school-after-son-dies-from-snake-bite-on-excursion...

this raises many questions and points of discussion.

very sad case indeed, but did anyone set out to kill this boy? no of course not.

why is it we are now in a time where every one needs someone to blame and then sue when something like this happens.

will getting a big payout bring the boy back? no it wont.

what it most likely will do is remove excursions of any kind from all schools.

why is it we cant get our heads around the fact life is fickle, sometimes bad things just happen.

as a new member of the aussie population this mother certainly knows how to find a lawyer.

suing the school ect prolly wouldnt have even occured to me unless a lawyer called me and even then i would hope i'd tell them to go jump, not making money from my grief.

[not_for_sale2025]

Given that it is Maurice Blackburn, I suspect they approached the family and planted the idea of a suit in their heads. Grief can be fickle too, especially when one loses their own child. I can't imagine anything worse. I don't think the mother should be judged too harshly. She is probably still hurting and easy prey for a law firm that is only interested in dollars and couldn't really care less about the human aspect of this tragedy.

[bright.ton42]

So unfair these cases of suing......and of course the real winners are......   the lawyers. 

There was a woman recently .....   and I'm unclear about the story but it was only recent .....I think she decided to jog to work and fell over and hurt herself so sued Work Cover .......  but she lost.  Does anyone know the details?

[springyzone]

I think it is a suspected snake bite.

That puzzles me as it suggests that there is uncertainty about how he died.

Surely toxin would show in the system?

No snake was seen?

[lyndal1838]

It seems odd to me (and slighty unethical) to be suing when there is no proof of how he died.

They can hardly blame anybody without knowing how/why he died.

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

For goodness sakes. We live in a country full of nasty critters that bite. What was the school supposed to do? Run around the morning of and tell all the bitey things to go out for the day? The world has gone mad. The really sad thing is, the school will pay up to keep their reputation. Make them look good, even though there was nothing they could do to prevent it. I'm guessing now that there will be a cull of snakes, just like when someone gets bitten by a shark.

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It is a sad reality that one almost inescapable aspect of grief is a need to 'blame' something or someone for what has happened. It is a way of rationalising and coping with the death.

 Often people blame themselves and, indeed  will think up the most bizarre reasons to justify that guilt. Blaming someone or something else is slightly less destructive and blaming  some faceless institution removes the guilt one degree further still. A wise woman once said of this need to blame "If you must blame someone, blame God - he's big enough to take it.

I can't imagine that this lawsuit will stand up in court and I  sincerely hope it doesn't, but I do understand what has driven the mother to do this and I can't find it in my heart  to criticise her.

[davidc4430]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

It seems odd to me (and slighty unethical) to be suing when there is no proof of how he died.

They can hardly blame anybody without knowing how/why he died.

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maybe he died of natural causes, like old age

its called the benjamin button syndrome i think

just a thought.

i do have odd thoughts some say.

[chameleon54]

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@springyzone wrote:

I think it is a suspected snake bite.

That puzzles me as it suggests that there is uncertainty about how he died.

Surely toxin would show in the system?

No snake was seen?

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I didnt actually see the snake that bit me. I was walking in tall grass and felt a hard tap on the elastic side of my work boots.  I caught a glimpse of something rustling near my shoe, but it disappeared before I could get a good look at it. Nothing hurt, so I didnt really give it another thought.

As the day progressed my ankle became tender and I couldnt really work out why. It wasnt untill I got home in the evening and removed my boot that I saw the two puncture wounds and realised what had happened. . I felt OK and figured I hadnt died yet, so didnt go to the hospital. A few days later my foot started to go black and the puncture wounds where very itchy, so I thought I better get it seen too.

After waiting a couple of hours in the hospital emergency waiting room a car accident victom arrived and was rushed straight through. . It was clear I would be there for many hours more, so I just went home, iced it up waited for it to get better by itself, which took around six weeks. We have brown snakes and red belly black snakes in the area. I figured if it had been a brown, I would not still  be here to tell the tale, so it must have been a small Red Belly Black Snake.

[lind9650]

Snake  bites leave puncture marks, even through clothing, and the poison would show up in a blood test, but nothing has been found.

Suspected snake bite sounds very suspicious to me.

Is the Doctor working with the Solicitor and getting a kickback when they win a case?

Hope the court realises how fishy this all sounds.

Erica