'I shouldn't be alive': Melbourne man survives bite from venomous snake

Mark Pelley acknowledges that he "shouldn't be alive" today, having survived a tiger snake bite just two months ago.

Renowned as "The Snake Hunter", he is no stranger to the dangers of his profession after spending years catching some of the country's deadliest reptiles.

His luck however finally ran out in March, when a critical failure in his equipment left him defenseless to a tiger snake's bite.

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He told 9news.com.au he was bitten while responding to a job in Melbourne.

His condition started deteriorating almost immediately.

"My good fortune ran out when the snake bit me. I knew it got me because the pain of the venom was burning me," Pelley said.

"(The venom) felt like putting your hand on a hot oven. Except you can't take it away.

"It was searing pain, throughout my finger that spread up my arm as the venom was travelling through me."

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He quickly called triple zero, before driving himself two minutes home, where he received immediate first aid care.

"I remember laying on the floor and I collapsed on the ground. I remember hearing what was happening around me and my sensors were fading," he said.

"I lost the ability to see, I couldn't hear. I couldn't feel any touch or pressure from the ground. Everything was gone. 

"Somewhere very deep inside of me, I had an awareness that I was a single dad of kids who needed me. My daughters needed me. I fought what was happening to me."

His recovery began to show promise after receiving his initial dose of antivenom. But this was short-lived.

"I was drifting away," Pelley said.

"I remember reaching for the nurse's buzzer, trying to signal that I needed help."

The moments following are a blur to him. "I don't remember anything until I regained consciousness," he admitted.

That's when he received his second dose of antivenom, but the venom continued to destroy his body's ability to clot.

"I was bleeding out internally," he said.

"The doctors had to make a decision, they couldn't give me any drugs to handle that because I could end up having a heart attack. They couldn't do surgery on me because I just bleed out even more.

"They gave me about 30 bags of plasma and blood. All night, I had nurses and doctors working on me giving me multiple bags of plasma.

"The only organ at that time that was responding properly to the antivenom that kept going was my kidneys. That's what kept me alive."

After weeks in hospital, Pelley returned home, where he started to relearn simple tasks.

"I lost huge chunks of my long-term memory, including names and places," he said.

"I lost a lot of my hand-eye coordination. I lost so many things. I was learning to do basic activities of daily living all over again."

Fast forward two months and Pelley has already returned to work, even catching a tiger snake yesterday.

"I shouldn't really be alive today," he said.

"I'm extremely grateful to be here and for every opportunity and moment that I have in life with my family."