A man who was found unconscious with his 15-foot pet snake wrapped around his neck and strangling him has died in the hospital.
Elliot Senseman, 27, died on Monday in the hospital due to "anoxic brain injury," according to the Lehigh County Coroner's Office.
Police arrived at Mr Senseman’s Pennsylvania home last Wednesday to find the animal wrapped around his neck. Mr Senseman was unconscious when police found him and had reportedly suffered from cardiac arrest after the snake began to constrict around his neck.
Responding officers shot and killed the snake so they could safely remove it from the man's neck.
“Because the snake was so large, the midsection of the snake was wrapped around the throat. The head of the snake was just far enough away from the victim that the officer made a split-second decision and he proceeded to shoot the snake in the head,” Upper Macungie Township Police Department Lieutenant Peter Nickischer told ABC7. "It was without a doubt a life-and-death situation for this person."
A family member at the house guided police to Mr Senseman, who was lying in a doorway between a room and an interior hallway. Police said they saw the snake staring at them. An officer fired a shot at the snake's head. Mr Nickischer said the animal did not die immediately, but began to slowly slither away after it had been shot.
"It wasn't like it just died. It started to slither away, luckily away from the officers, away from the direction that they were trying to pull this gentleman." he told ABC7 "They realized it was a matter of life and death with seconds to make that decision. Praise the officers. They did what they had to do. It was a safe shoot."
Mr Senseman was then transported to the hospital where he died days later.
Police said the snake was a "boa-constrictor" type of snake but did not provide a species. Mr Senseman was reportedly known to have kept several snakes as pets.
Pennsylvania has no state laws regulation the possession of non-native species of reptile or amphibians. So long as owners do not release the animals into the wild any Pennsylvanian resident can own the animals, assuming there are no local restrictions.
It is, however, illegal to own venomous snakes native to the state.
