An elderly man bitten by a taipan at his Cairns home has died after spending nearly a week in hospital.
David Pitt, 77, went into cardiac arrest after the highly venomous snake bit him on the foot at his Yorkeys Knob home last Tuesday night.
Mr Pitt was attempting to remove the snake which had slithered into his lounge room when he was bitten.
Quick-thinking paramedic Valerie Noble heard the job come over the radio, and raced a dose of anti-venom to the house, while listening to officers who were at the scene detail the man's rapid decline.
"I picked up the anti-venom from the hospital and drove it out to the scene where (officers) were performing CPR," she said.
"Shortly after giving the anti-venom we got a pulse back (but) the patient was still quite fragile."
He was taken to the Cairns hospital in a critical condition, and has since been given another dose of anti-venom.
Ms Noble said the man was trying to kill or chase the snake out of his house when he was bitten.
"But the snake was obviously quite fast and bit him," she said.
"There was quite a lot of blood ... so potentially the snake has hit a vein ...a rapid almost injection of the venom."
Authorities have warned people to be on the look out for snakes, who are active at this time of year.
The coastal taipan is Australia's largest venomous snake, with some adults growing two metres long.
