Bodyless rattlesnake bites Texas man after it was decapitated
This story was on the local news last night and it looks like it got picked up by national news. If you're so inclined, there are pics and videos in the link.
A Texas man is recovering after he was bitten in the hand by a rattlesnake he had just decapitated, ABC Corpus Christi affiliate KIII reported.
Jennifer Sutcliffe and her husband were doing yard work at their Corpus Christi home on May 27 when she spotted a 4-foot rattlesnake lurking nearby, she told the station.
Sutcliffe's husband grabbed a shovel and severed the snake's head. When he went to pick up the head to dispose of it, he was bitten.
The snake released all of its venom into Sutcliffe's husband, causing him to immediately experience seizures, loss of vision and internal bleeding. Photos from the incident show that his hand swelled up considerably and was covered in dark purple bruises.
Sutcliffe said the first 24 hours after the bite were the worst.
Doctors initially told Sutcliffe that her husband may not make it despite the large amounts of anti-venom they were giving him. A snake bite victim is usually administered two to four doses of the expensive antidote but Sutcliffe's husband was given a whopping 26 doses, she said.
Sutcliffe's husband is now in stable condition but is still experiencing weak kidney function, she said.
Snake heads have the capability of biting and injecting venom because some reflexive motion still remains even after they've been separated from the body, according to National Geographic.
Dying from a snake bite is rare, Michael Halpert, a trauma surgeon in Corpus Christi, told KIII.
"There are about 6,000 to 8,000 snake bites per year in the country, and 10 to 12 people die," he said.
Halpert warned people not to suck the venom out themselves.
"You just want to keep the victim calm, keep the bitten area above the level of the heart slightly, and get the patient to the nearest emergency room," he said.
Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity
DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.
June 07, 2018, 06:28 PM
Sigmanic
I was told at a very early age to not even touch a severed head because it can still bite....guess there's a good basis for this advice!
June 07, 2018, 06:31 PM
corsair
He had to use his hands to pick up the severed head... Not the shovel, which he used to bash the snake and likely chop it's head-off. Nope, gotta use my hands. Where you gonna put it...in the garbage? Couldn't just use said shovel, dig hole and push the severed head into it...?
June 07, 2018, 06:43 PM
ArtieS
I've read about this with severed cobra heads in Asia as well. I just don't get it. Where does the head get the leverage to bite into you? Did you pick the damned thin up by the jaw? Stick your fingers in there?
What the hell. It's not like a severed head can jump at you like a bad horror movie.
"I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation."
Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II.
June 07, 2018, 06:43 PM
ffips
Stop and figure the cost of treatment. If using the conservative number of $10k/treatment x 26 treatments = $260,000.00 just for the meds. I have been told cost is more like $14k/treatment. $260k~$364k in meds should make one think several times about whether or not to touch venomous snakes.
June 07, 2018, 06:44 PM
TigerDore
It's a fact.
June 07, 2018, 06:48 PM
mike56
quote:
Stop and figure the cost of treatment. If using the conservative number of $10k/treatment x 26 treatments = $260,000.00 just for the meds. I have been told cost is more like $14k/treatment. $260k~$364k in meds should make one think several times about whether or not to touch venomous snakes.
Good shovel,fiberglass handle, about 4 feet long, costs about 23.00
June 07, 2018, 06:51 PM
P220 Smudge
Born and raised in El Paso. I don’t play with snakes. Not no kind, not no way, not no how.
______________________________________________ "If the truth shall kill them, let them die.”
Endeavoring to master the subtle art of the grapefruit spoon.
June 07, 2018, 06:55 PM
ffips
quote:
Originally posted by mike56:
quote:
Stop and figure the cost of treatment. If using the conservative number of $10k/treatment x 26 treatments = $260,000.00 just for the meds. I have been told cost is more like $14k/treatment. $260k~$364k in meds should make one think several times about whether or not to touch venomous snakes.
Good shovel,fiberglass handle, about 4 feet long, costs about 23.00
I just watched the video. Add an ambulane ride and airlift to the equation.
I am not even sure how insurance handles snake bites.
June 07, 2018, 07:01 PM
Suppressed
quote:
Originally posted by ArtieS: I've read about this with severed cobra heads in Asia as well. I just don't get it. Where does the head get the leverage to bite into you? Did you pick the damned thin up by the jaw? Stick your fingers in there?
What the hell. It's not like a severed head can jump at you like a bad horror movie.
My guess is that this is exactly what he did.
June 07, 2018, 07:02 PM
HayesGreener
I can't recall the percentage, but when I was researching snake bites to develop first aid protocols years ago, I read that a significant portion of the envenomations in the U.S. occurred after the snake was dead. There is something reflexive in the brain of vipers involved in striking that remains active for quite a while after the snake is dead. I have seen a water moccasin trying to bite even after being shot with a shotgun and the head is just dangling by a thread. Don't screw with the damn things, they can kill you.
CMSGT USAF (Retired) Chief of Police (Retired)
June 07, 2018, 07:17 PM
FN in MT
Always smashed the heads after killing the rattler. ALWAYS moved the head with a stick or shovel. HOW stupid to pick it up!
June 07, 2018, 07:22 PM
Rey HRH
quote:
Originally posted by corsair: He had to use his hands to pick up the severed head... Not the shovel, which he used to bash the snake and likely chop it's head-off. Nope, gotta use my hands. Where you gonna put it...in the garbage? Couldn't just use said shovel, dig hole and push the severed head into it...?
I'm with you there, bud. And I'm an ignoramus.
"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
June 07, 2018, 07:24 PM
Micropterus
One of the most expensive injuries you can have.
_____________ "I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
June 07, 2018, 07:28 PM
OKCGene
What does a limp dick have in common with a rattle snake?
You don't f**k with either one!!!
June 07, 2018, 07:52 PM
P220 Smudge
quote:
Originally posted by OKCGene: What does a limp dick have in common with a rattle snake?
You don't f**k with either one!!!
Generations of wisdom there.
______________________________________________ "If the truth shall kill them, let them die.”
Endeavoring to master the subtle art of the grapefruit spoon.
June 07, 2018, 07:56 PM
12GA
What the FUCK?! There’s a lot to bitch about where I live but snakes rising from the dead to kill me ain’t one of them thankfully.
__________________ Member NRA Member NYSRPA
June 07, 2018, 08:02 PM
Doc H.
Well, yes. Reptile brains take some time to figure out they're dead; very loose wiring. That goes for Saurischia as well, so after you bag that T-Rex, don't stick your leg in there....
"And gentlemen in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day"
Not the shovel, which he used to bash the snake and likely chop it's head-off. Nope, gotta use my hands.