How to Save People From Snakebites

Matt Lewin waited for the paralysis to set in. Two anesthesiologists and an emergency-room doctor monitored his vitals while the mivacurium moved through him. Mivacurium paralyzes skeletal muscles the same way a cobra bite does, with the venom's most deadly effect: It causes the diaphragm to stop contracting, and the victim suffocates. The doctors had chemically immobilized Lewin, like a snake would, to see if they could reanimate him with a new snake-venom antidote.