Girl, 3, saved by grandmother after being bitten by deadly snake in Australia

Lucia Carna was bitten by the snake while playing in her grandmother's courtyard. Photo / Supplied

A 3-year-old girl was saved by her quick-thinking grandmother after being bitten by a potentially lethal snake while playing in her backyard in Western Australia.

Lucia Carna was playing in the yard of her grandmother's home in Mandurah when she was bitten by the venomous snake, which doctors believe was a dugite, reports the ABC.

She was bitten after she stepped on the reptile, when it crawled out from a garden bed.

Doctors who treated Lucia say the quick first aid given to the young girl was vital in saving her life.

After she was bitten, her grandmother Jill tightly bandaged her legs until an ambulance arrived and took her to Rockingham General Hospital.

Lucia's mother Holly Carna said doctors told them the quick first aid had helped Lucia.

First aid provided by Lucia Carna's grandmother helped save her life. Photo / Supplied

"What we were told at the hospital was that mum's actions immediately after had made a massive difference," Carna said.

"When that phone call came through, that you don't ever want to get, that your child, something's happened … my thought was 'Mum can handle that'."

She said she'd known of snakes being around when she grew up on a farm but had not expected to come across them in suburban Mandurah.

Carna said every parent should educate themselves on snake first aid.

"When you think about getting your first aid, you think you're going to come across a car accident, or a person at the restaurant is going to have a heart attack and you're going to be needed," she said.

"But that's probably less likely. It's more likely you're going to be using it on someone that you spend a lot of time with, someone you love."

Lucia Carna was bitten by the snake while playing in her grandmother's courtyard. Photo / Supplied

She said it could make a "big difference".

The emergency doctor who treated Lucia said applying pressure to the area around the snake bite was crucial.

"Most of the deaths from brown snake bites occur prior to arrival in hospital from cardiac arrest," Dr Stephen Grainger said.

He said pressure could slow the spread of the venom through the body before the patient got to hospital and could receive antivenom.

"If the patient does collapse and goes into cardiac arrest, then we know that with good CPR, which you learn in a first-aid course, will greatly improve your outcome and give you a chance of making it to hospital and receiving anti-venom." - News.com.au