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In his basement, Tim Friede allowed two of the most deadly snakes in the world to bite him on the day following the September 11 attacks, when he was feeling extremely down.
After four days, he came out of a coma.
The pain of a snakebite is something Friede is familiar with. He told AFP over video call from his home in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a small town in the United States.
Most people would be scared of snakes after this, but Friede just promised to be cautious next time.
This man let snakes bite him more than 200 times between 2000 and 2018. He additionally injected their poison into himself more than 650 times.
The reason Friede went through all that pain is because he was trying to become completely immune to venom, a dangerous practice known as mithridatism.
Friede began to think that he might serve as the foundation for a more advanced form of antivenom after a few years. Scientists have had a hard time believing the former truck driver, who does not have a college degree.
However, his blood’s antibodies provide protection against several snake venoms, according to a study published last month in the prestigious Cell publication.
Now, the scientists are hopeful that Friede’s hyperimmunity might potentially result in the development of a universal antivenom.
At the moment, most antivenoms only work on a few of the 600 poisonous snakes in the world. This study would answer a huge demand.
Based on the World Health Organization, up to 138,000 people are killed by snakebites every year, and another 400,000 suffer amputation or become disabled in other ways.
Sources:
Glanville, Jacob & Bellin, Mark & Pletnev, Sergei & Zhang, Baoshan & Andrade, Joel & Kim, Sangil & Tsao, David & Verardi, Raffaello & Bedi, Rishi & Liao, Sindy & Newland, Raymond & Bayless, Nicholas & Youssef, Sawsan & Tully, Ena & Bylund, Tatsiana & Kim, Sujeong & Hirou, Hannah & Liu, Tracy & Kwong, Peter. (2025). Snake venom protection by a cocktail of varespladib and broadly neutralizing human antibodies. Cell. 10.1016/j.cell.2025.03.050. https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00402-7
Man who let snakes bite him 200 times spurs new antivenom hope. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-snakes-spurs-antivenom.html
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