An Australian tourist has revealed her harrowing experience of being bitten by a venomous snake during what was meant to be a dream holiday.
Amy Lecons, who is originally from South Australia but lives in Wanaka, New Zealand, was hiking alone in the remote Albanian mountains back in June when the unthinkable happened.
She was bitten by the country’s most venomous snake.
Taking out her phone to call emergency services, she was horrified when she claims they hung up on her as they could not understand English.
Instead, she decided to call her father in Australia, who contacted local police, who got in touch with Interpol, as well as calling her hostel for help.
Eventually, Ms Lecons was rescued, more than one hour after she was bitten.
“I was 7km into this 11km run, coming down and around a corner when I was bitten by a snake,” she told the UK’s Truth Times.
“I instantly knew that I had been bitten by a snake as I felt a sharp pain in my left achilles.
“As if in slow motion, I saw the snake underneath my feet as I bundled over the top and slowed to a stop.”
Her first instinct was to reach for her phone, both to call for help and to video the creature for identification purposes. At 10.20am, Ms Lecons called the EU emergency number, 112.
“This call lasted less than one minute before I was hung up on,” she said.
“I asked for someone that speaks English but while there was a person on the other side of the call occasionally responding, I didn’t know what was being said and the call ended.”
Feeling scared, she decided to call her father, Robert Lecons, in Australia – who just so happened to be a doctor.
He talked his daughter through immobilising the leg and keeping her heart rate down, while she shared her exact location using the What3Words app.
Mr Lecons contacted Australian emergency services, while Ms Lecons tried to call 112 once more — only to be hung up on again after 53 seconds.
“All the while, I was calling out help across the valley but no one responded or found me on the trail,” she recalled.
Ms Lecons decided to call her hostel in nearby Shkodër, where she had recently stayed. “Immediately he answered, understood the severity of the situation and started phoning around,” she said.
“Australian emergency services were also getting through to Interpol around the same time.”
Ms Lecons said that an ambulance was dispatched around 25 minutes after the bite.
Due to being on a very remote trail, the response team took a further 30 minutes to reach her, followed by another hour before she reached hospital in Bajram Curri, where she was given antivenom.
Ms Lecons discovered that she had been bitten by a European nose-horned viper — widely considered the deadliest snake in Europe.
“By chance, I was only 200m away from a farm in the mountains that had road access,” she explained.
“So once I was located, between the three rescuers, they stretchered and piggybacked me to a road where the ambulance could collect me.
“Thank you so much to the first responders, the nurse for your quick action, the secondary helper who aided in my assistance and especially to the gentleman who carried me on his back in the heat and across uneven terrain to speed up my rescue.
“Despite being unable to communicate using the same language, this is the epitome of Albanian hospitality.”
Mr Lecons recalled the moment he realised how serious the situation was and the helplessness of trying to help his daughter from the other side of the globe.
“I had done a Google lens search very early on in our conversation from the video she sent,” he told the outlet.
“I was aware that this was a genuinely dangerous bite. I was extremely frightened about the danger from the snake venom, knowing that it was potentially life threatening, Amy was remote from medical assistance, and she was unable to get emergency services to respond.”
While it was a difficult experience, Ms Lecons said she had not been put off solo hiking – however said her approach to the hobby has changed.
“I am of course more wary of my environment right now but I will not stop going on solo missions entirely,” she said.
“I mustn’t let fear control my life, especially when trail running is a large part of who I am and what makes me happy.”