We’ve provided stories before about how knives save lives, but none quite as incredible as a recent incident involving a pocket knife and a snake.

Wildlife vs. Pocket Knife

Needless to say, the knife won decisively. But how it came to that point is very interesting.

The story happened in 2017 in Sheffield Lake, Ohio. Police there received a 911 call from a very distraught woman. Calls from distraught people are hardly anything new for police in Ohio or anywhere else, but this one had a new twist:

The woman was being squeezed by a boa constrictor.

Snake Rescuer

The 45-year-old woman who made the call makes a habit of rescuing snakes. At the time of the call, she had a total of 11 snakes, including two boa constrictors. How one got out is not entirely clear.

What is clear is that by the time she called police, the woman had been taken to the ground in front of her house by a five-foot long boa constrictor. The snake had wrapped around her waist and was biting her on the nose and face.

“I have a boa constrictor stuck to my face!” the woman said in her desperate call.

“You have a what?” the dispatcher responded.

Eventually, the women reported that the snake was “around my waist and got my nose.” She added that she could not open the snake’s jaws and that there was “blood everywhere.”

Pocket Knife To The Rescue

When the EMS arrived, they found the women lying in her driveway. The snake was, indeed, wrapped around her body and biting her face.

Paramedics initially tried to remove the snake, but it would not budge. They feared it would further tighten around the woman, cutting off her ability to breathe or perhaps cracking her ribs.

A paramedic made the call right then and there. Without hesitation, he took out his pocket knife and cut the snake’s head off.

That ended things quickly.

Dennis Bring, the mayor of Sheffield Lake, said the quick-thinking paramedic and his pocket knife saved the woman’s life. He said, “I’m just really pleased with the paramedics’ response…to think that quick to take out a pocket knife,” Bring said. “Obviously he had to destroy the snake, but he had no other choice.”

Officials ended up dumping the dead snake in a dumpster. The woman refused to talk to members of the media. Bring said the incident had traumatized her.

He also voiced what many likely were thinking upon hearing this story about a women who has collected 11 snakes and had one bite her face:  “Now she’s going to have to make a decision on whether she continues to do this.”