Injecting yourself with venom!?

 

 

 

I know a guy who does! Well, I did know a guy and truthfully I've never met him but I know of a guy who did just that, inject himself with snake venom! The guys name is Bill Haast. He was a pretty famous herpetologist in Miami, FL. Born in 1910, Bill was brought up around reptiles, as his dad was a reptile enthusiast. Bill opened up the Miami Serpentarium in 1947-1984 and a year later he was injecting himself, not for any recreational purpose but for the purpose of science. Bill was interested in the effects of snake venom and the bodies immune defense mechanism to these venom's. See Bill wanted to create his own immunity using is own body to the venom of those snakes he handled everyday. Bill continued injecting himself till he died. In a 60 minutes interview in 1986 Bill stated "If I live to see 100 then I'm probably on to something". I think Bill was right on the money so to speak. Throughout Bill's life he has survived 172 snake bites, traveled the world donating blood transfusions, and saved 21 peoples lives. Venezuela even made Bill an honorary citizen of the country after Bill traveled through the forest to a remote village where an 8 year old boy had been envenomated and saved the boys life after using his bodies own antibodies. And to answer the question, "Did Bill live to 100?" the answer is Yes. Bill died in 2011 six months shy of his 101st birthday having lived a healthy life and simple dying of old age!