ribbon snake

[Neal]

I would assume because they either could not identify the snake for sure, and/or even if they knew the species, didn't know if it was a venomous species.

Not a bad idea, but it still relies on the people at the hospital to be able to identify the snake.

What's the chance of a person at a hospital being able to identify a snake. Even when I didn't know anything about snakes, I still knew a ribbon was venomous.