By : Dr Struan Keith Sutherland & Dr James Tibballs Written generously for the Royal Flying Doctor Service 2002

Australia's fauna is remarkable for its range of venomous creatures, on land and in the sea and Struan Sutherland was a doyen of medical research in the field of envenomation and the ultimate authority on the medical management of envenomated victims in Australia. Snakes, spiders, ticks, deadly jellyfish and other venomous creatures have always instilled fear into its citizens. The fight against these was lead by the former Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (CSL), with the production of specific antivenoms to the most dangerous snakes, the Red-back Spider, the Paralysis Tick, the Stonefish and the Box-jellyfish. Struan as Head of Immunology at CSL, produced the antivenom against the Funnel-web Spider. He started work at CSL in 1966 and his initial research involved development of a gammaglobulin for use in immunodeficient children. His interest in venoms was sparked by the death of a young child after a bite by a Sydney funnel-web spider. In 1967 he reactivated research on an antivenom for the venom of the dreaded Sydney Funnel-web Spider, which curiously amongst mammals affects only primates. This task had defeated others before him and was not until 1980 that an antivenom raised in rabbits, was ready for testing in monkeys in tests conducted with collaborators at the Royal Children's Hospital research laboratory. This was a remarkable scientific achievement, succeeding where many others had failed. Since production of this antivenom, no person has died from the bite of this formidable animal and in many victims the course of illness following a bite has been dramatically shortened. Struan also developed techniques which has made the medical management of envenomation in Australia the best in the World. He was accorded world recognition with his invention of the pressure-immobilisation technique of first-aid. This simple but effective technique revolutionised first-aid management of snake bite and of some other types of envenomation. It made redundant the use of tourniquets and other dangerous first-aid manoeuvres. Similarly, he developed a snake venom detection kit which enabled doctors working at the bedside to ascertain which snake antivenom should be administered to a victim. In recognition of these achievements, he was awarded the AMA prize for medical research and the James Cook medal from the Royal Society of NSW. He also improved medical management of the envenomated victim by succeeding in bringing the subject to the medical curriculum. Struan was a prodigious author. He published over 300 scientific and medical articles, numerous …