- A Michigan man's life was saved after the Detroit Medical Center scrambled to get him antivenom after he was bitten by his pet Cobra. 
 
 A Pinconning Township man was bitten by his albino monocled cobra on July 14 and was rushed to a Bay County hospital. The man was nauseated, vomiting, and drowsy, according to DMC. While at the hospital there, he stopped breathing due to paralysis from the venom. 
 
 The Monocled cobra's venom is highly potent and among the fastest acting of all snakes, killing victims as quickly as an hour after the bite. 
 
 The 26-year-old man was intubated and put on a breathing machine and then air lifted to DMC for higher level of care. 
 
 DMC worked with the Toledo Zoo and received eight vials of generic antivenom within a half hour of him arriving at DMC. The generic antivenom covers many but not all poisonous snakes and had little effect on the patient. 
 
 As his condition worsened, DMC contacted the Miami-Dade Emergency Response team in Florida. They have a venom response program flew 20 vials of antivenom to Detroit to treat the man. 
 
 BBC Nature says the Monocled cobra is famed for their hood, which sports circular markings the resemble eyes. They're typically timid yet very dangerous and can kill you if a bite is not treated: 
 
 "What makes the Monocled cobra especially dangerous is the way they repeatedly strike when excited - injecting more deadly venom. Their proximity to villages and cities accounts for the large number of people bitten each year." 
 
 The Monocled cobra is found in India, China, Vietnam, and Cambodia, as well as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal, and Thailand. 
 
 According to the CDC, about 8,000 snakebites happen in the U.S. each year. 
 
 "There might be only five cases such as described above in the country in a year, but the coordination it took to save this man’s life is remarkable as multiple agencies worked together to deliver the care this man needed," the DMC said. ||||| The monocled cobra is widespread across South and Southeast Asia. (Photo: Kwhisky, Getty Images/iStockphoto) 
 
 DETROIT – A Michigan man continues to recover from a cobra bite that sent doctors scrambling to hunt down antivenom. 
 
 The man, 26, from Pinconning Township, Michigan, became nauseous and started vomiting about 20 minutes after his pet albino monocled cobra bit him the night of July 14. He initially was treated at a Bay City, Michigan-area hospital but then was airlifted to Detroit after he stopped breathing because his respiratory muscles became paralyzed, according to Detroit Medical Center officials. Pinconning Township is about 117 miles north of Detroit. 
 
 Toxicology experts at the hospital reached out to the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. Eight vials of antivenom were sent to Detroit Medical Center Harper Hospital and administered to the man shortly after his arrival. 
 
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 "However, the generic antivenom, which covers many, but not all species of poisonous snakes, had little effect and the patient’s condition continued to worsen," Jason Barczy, the medical center's communications manager, said in an email. 
 
 Barczy said the man's family helped doctors identify the species of snake and in turn pinpoint the type of antivenom that was needed. 
 
 Monocled cobras are native to South and Southeast Asia, according to reptilesmagazine.com. Their deadly venom is one of the fastest-acting snake venoms in the world, the magazine said. 
 
 With the man's prognosis looking grim, medical center officials contacted the Miami-Dade County Venom Response Program in Florida the morning of July 15. Twenty vials of the appropriate antivenom were put on a commercial flight to Detroit and administered to the man via IV that afternoon. 
 
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 The man remains hospitalized but is on the road to recovery, Barczy said, thanks to the efforts of medical professionals who may experience such an event only once in their careers. 
 
 "I talked to one of the directors of pharmacy who has been here 10 or 11 years, and she said it’s never really happened for her," he said. "Five cases like this might happen through the entire country in a given year." 
 
 Follow Ann Zaniewski on Twitter: @AnnZaniewski 
 
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– A Michigan man's pet cobra bit him earlier this month, setting off a multistate hunt for the specific type of antivenom needed to save the man. The 26-year-old started vomiting about 20 minutes after being bit by the albino monocled cobra July 14; their venom is one of the fastest-acting ones in the world, USA Today reports. The man went to a local hospital but was airlifted to Detroit Medical Center after his respiratory muscles became paralyzed and he stopped breathing, Fox 2 reports. The hospital's toxicology experts got eight vials of antivenom from the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio, and administered them to the man shortly after he got there, but he continued to get worse. As the medical center's communications manager explains, it was a generic antivenom that "covers many, but not all species of poisonous snakes." With help from the man's family to identify the species of snake he'd been bitten by, experts were then able to figure out which type of antivenom he needed; they ultimately reached out to the Miami-Dade County Venom Response Program in Florida the morning after the bite and had 20 vials of the correct type of antivenom to give the man by the afternoon. The man, who is still hospitalized, is expected to recover.