Raleigh zebra cobra owner nearly lost his life to green mamba bite months after losing his cobra

The owner of an escaped exotic zebra cobra that was loose last summer in Raleigh was bitten by a deadly green mamba months after his cobra escape.

Chris Gifford, 22, who was charged with 40 misdemeanors relating to accidentally letting his zebra cobra escape, said he nearly died after being bitten by the mamba and admitted he was reckless with the deadly reptile.

"They are the acrobats of the snake world," he said.

The mamba he owned was one of the most "toxic snakes on the planet."

Gifford admitted to WRAL Investigates in an interview that he was probably not skilled enough to have this snake in his home, especially because the one he had was previously caught in the wild.

Green mamba venom is known to kill people within an hour. The one he bought was 7-feet long.

In March 2021, Gifford was doing a full clean of his dozens of snake enclosures. He removed each snake from its enclosure and then cleaned out their cages.

Gifford said he made a mistake early on that may have contributed to his bite.

"I had left the four mambas for last," he said.

The 7-foot snake's cage was the very last, which wasn’t a good idea, Gifford said.

"They watch. He had seen that every enclosure I encountered with I had pulled that snake out," he said.

On this day, the snake was in no mood.

"It was a day where he didn’t want to come out of the enclosure," he said. "I could have listened to that body behavior more."

Gifford soon paid the price.

Gifford said while he was removing the mamba from a snake hook, the mamba used a nearby door for leverage and smacked his hand.

"They’re incredibly smart, and he was stretched all the way out so he had gapped 7 feet in pretty much a heartbeat," Gifford said.

Gifford did a quick check of his hand. After seeing two fang marks, his first thought was, "Well, I'm dead."

Gifford got the mamba back in its enclosure and started racing against time.

Running to his parents, he said, "Guys, I just got tagged. Get in the car right now."

His body already tingling, Gifford called poison control and tried to call UNC Rex Hospital to let them know he was coming.

Gifford admits there were necessary steps he didn't take to prepare for a bite. He said when you own a venomous reptile, you are supposed to inform the medical team and toxicologist near you in case of a bite.

Gifford was still conscious when he got the hospital, but because of COVID-19 visitor restrictions at the time, only his mother could go inside.

He remembers a tough goodbye at that point.

"I thought, that's the last time I'm seeing my dad," he said.

The medical staff put a compression on the bite, which you’re supposed to do with snakes that have venom like a mamba. That’s not the protocol for native venomous snakes, like the copperhead or water moccasin.

"Eventually they put me on oxygen because my oxygen levels were dropping," he said. "I had really high lactic acid build up in my heart. It was going south really fast."

Green mamba venom is known to kill people in less than hour.

"Essentially what I was doing is I was decomposing," Gifford said. "My body was shutting down. I was losing the ability to speak, drooling, fading in and out of consciousness."

Things soon turned around when anti-venom arrived from a zoo in South Carolina. Gifford credits hospital staff for saving his life.

"It took them six hours to get anti-venom, which is unheard of. They actually did a great job," he said.

Four vials and 15 minutes later, Gifford turned the corner against the odds.

"It was literally a miracle. I thank God that I’m still alive," he said. "That shouldn’t have happened."

After his recovery, Gifford’s parents made him sell the green mamba.