Pickled snake awakens after three months before biting woman in China

Dying a slow and painful death trapped inside a glass jar is enough to make anyone angry.

And a woman in China felt the full wrath of a snake she had kept bottled up for three months when it came back to life and bit her on the hand.

The resident, from Shuangcheng in Heilongjiang Province, had been marinating the pit viper in some sorghum wine before the reptile attempted to make a break for it.

She was using the shejiu (snake wine), which in traditional Chinese medicine is believed to restore health, to treat her rheumatism.

‘Before the shejiu could have any effect on me I was sent to the hospital for a snake bite,’ she told RocketNews24.

Snakes can stay alive for long period of time by entering a condition similar to hibernation, but only if they have enough oxygen to survive, suggesting the woman’s jar was not airtight.

The woman was released from hospital shortly after being treated, while the irate snake was later killed.

Adapted from Metro