I received this email from a friend. I don't believe he knows the victim. The email I received had pictures but they weren't attachments and I don't know how to post the format they are in.



To my fellow outdoorsmen: pay attention and be careful, Then move fast for help if you have been bitten!!!!!! And if you're the least bit squeamish, I wouldn't look at the photos of this kid's arm. If you're not, pretty amazing stuff.





One person's struggle after Rattlesnake Bite.
Story: (please read before looking at pictures) .........
On July 21 , just after my 13th birthday, I was bitten by a Northern Pacific rattlesnake (the snake was originally
identified as a Western Diamondback rattlesnake, but that species is not found near Yosemite). I was located on a trail in a hiking area near Yosemite National Park, California. The bite occurred when I was sitting on a small boulder at a distance of 4.5 miles from the trailhead with my cabin group at camp.
I had my arms dangling at my side, and a 5 foot long rattlesnake bit me in the middle of my left palm. From this point, an amazing rescue took place, taking 4 hours to transport me the 4.5 miles to the trailhead.
The camp director had previously called the hospital, and a helicopter was waiting at the trailhead. During the 30 minute helicopter ride I was going in and out of consciousness, having trouble keeping my eyes open.
We arrived at the Modesto , CA hospital, where the doctor in the emergency room decided that my case was too
severe to treat at that medical centre. He told me this, which was the last thing I heard before going unconscious.
Although I was unconscious for approximately the next 24 hours, I have heard about the following events from my parents.I was taken from the Modesto hospital to the UC Davis Medical Centre in Sacramento, the trauma Centre for Northern California . My snake bite was determined to be too severe for Modesto to deal with. At the UC Davis hospital I underwent a fasciotomy, which involved the doctors cutting open my arm from the palm up to about the middle of my biceps. This was to relieve the extreme pressure that had built up in my arm From the rattlesnake venom, making my arm as hard as a rock until the fasciotomy.I spent the next 35 days in the UC Davis hospital, had 8 surgeries performed for cleaning out the dead tissue from my arm, and finally had a skin graft from my leg to close up my arm, which had remained open for 30 days after the fasciotomy until the skin graft surgery. That is 10 surgeries in total at UC Davis.
I was released from the hospital on August 24, had 4 months of intense physical therapy, and flew to Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina for a follow-up surgery. This was a vascular flap surgery, during which they took a chunk of skin and muscle from my back, attached its blood vessels to the ones in my arm using microsurgery, and then stitched it to my arm. Although 2 emergency surgeries were required within 24 hours on account of blood loss, the vascular flap was a success, and after 6 more months of physical therapy, my hand
had a significant improvement in mobility from when I left UC Davis and could move each finger only 2-3 millimetres.
My hand now has fully mobility and is about 80% as strong as it was before, thanks to my Dad and I resuming our rock climbing after a 1 year break due to the lack of strength in my left hand. I use it for about 90% of the things I used to do with my left hand (I am right handed). 13 surgeries, $700,000 worth of helicopter flights, surgeries, and hospital stays (paid by my insurance of course), and 20 months later, I am very happy with the outcome of this experience and my good fortune of getting through all this without any significant loss.


Best,

Mike

Mike i don't see a pic.

Sorry Battle, I don't know how to post this type of picture. The pics are not an attachment to the email. I tried to just copy them from the mail to the post. And then I tried to delete the thread but couldn't find the button. Am working on the pictures.

Mike

Mike you will have to save the photos to your computer and then save them to a hosting site. Then post like normal.

Mike thanks for the reply. The photos are not an attachment to the email. They are somehow "on the surface" of the email. I don't know how to save them to my computer.

Thanks

Right click on the photo, and then click on "send to" or save as which ever your computer comes up with. If it's send to, send it to a file, then go to the file and open it up. Go to hunt101.com or whichever you prefer and do as usual.

Mike - done and thanks!

















And this little Sweety died from a rattlesnake bite on the neck in the Spring of 2007:



Best,

Mike

Holy sh***t! That is nasty. I am going to SD in sept for the first time and I am told that there are a fair number of rattlers around. I need to get my dogs vaccinated. Does anyone know if there is one for humans?

I didn't know there was one for dogs let alone humans. One more reason that I love Alaska. NO SNAKES.

Because of where I live; we have to be ever vigilant for rattlers. I had one close call several years ago in February which is a Month that all the "Experts" will tell you the snakes are in hibernation. No one bothered to tell the 6 footer whose skin is pinned on a board in my den. I normally just leave them alone but this one was agressive.
Jim

Overview of canine vaccines-scroll down about 1/2 way for the Red Rock Biologics rattlesnake vaccine
http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/vmth/clientinfo/info/genmed/vaccinproto.html
No vaccine for humans.

All my dogs are vaccinated now. I wear snake gators until it gets cold. I kick at dead birds before I bend over and pick them up to make sure a rattlesnake doesn't have the same idea.

Boy that was gruesome. I wish I hadn't seen the pics. Glad to see you are all right, though. That's the reason I kill even the smallest garter snake around here. I hate snakes!! (And spiders)

Jimmy that isn't me.

Best,

Mike

I feel sorry for the young man that was bit and have a couple of friends without a calf on one leg and one with half a hand. I don't hate snakes as they do alot of good but I do hate it when folks and snakes cross paths and a person or dog is hurt or killed. From what I've seen it takes about as much time to heal from a snake bite as a grizz attach. There is no real end to rattlers it seems as thousand are killed in Texas every year at round-ups and such but the next year they are right back in the same places they were caught the year before.

Was thinking of making a trip out Western Oklahoma this November for quail. Do i need snake protection? The only other time i was out there it never dawned on me.
BTW: if anybody knows how the outlook is for Ellis and surrouding counties i'd appreciate your response.

I kill all snakes I can as I don't believe in discrimination.

That said, it this story true? The reason I ask is the prose sounds awfully mature for a 13 year old.

Well, that pretty much eliminated any guilt I may have felt about shooting rattlers. A friend lost a 90 pound dog in less than 30 minutes after it got bitten in the face, and this guy didn't like snakes to start with. On a quail trip with this guy about four years ago, I shot two rattlers on the same morning. I almost sat on the second one. Geez!

Actually the post op photo looks amazingly good for the amount of tissue damage this patient sustained.......



battle, as an alum of Ft. Sill and the western Okla area I would answer yes...be be aware and careful if its not pretty cold.

I kill all Copperheads on sight!
My Black Lab was bitten on the mouth, she lived and with no lasting problems, but had a tough go of it for a week.

For you guys that kill all snakes, be aware that some of them kill rattlers, copperheads, and cottonmouths, like the King and Bull snakes.

for Kings, remember:
If red touches black, its okay Jack.
If red touches yellow, youre a dead fellow.

Red on black, venom lack
Red on yellow kill a fellow.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I don't think the friend that forwarded the email to me knew the victim.

Bob I see you have the same pictures I do. Did you get the same email?

Chuck I don't kill non-poisonous snakes. And as someone pointed out it doesn't really do any good to casually kill a rattlesnake out in the field as they reproduce or another one just moves in. I don't kill them when the dogs can smell or see what is going on as I don't want them to think they are game. So the bottom line is that I don't kill all that many rattlesnakes. But I kill all I safely can.

On opening day of dove season (always Sept 1) a few years ago I shot a big rattler wounding but not killing it. My dogs came racing over because of the shot and I just barely caught them before they went into the thick weeds after it. That incident made me a lot more cautious about killing rattlesnakes while hunting.

Best,

Mike

I'm glad everything turned out well for the boy.
One thing that bothers me is was he alone in his hiking?

There was an article a while back in one of the magazines, don't know if it was a Gun Digest or what, where the writer purposely got bitten by a rattlesnake and did what is written to do, cut the wound open and suck the poison out. Probably more to it, but anyway did what was described to do and for the next 7 hours was in pain and had a fever but didn't need medical attention after.
So it seems natural that the longer you wait in time before administering treatment the more pain, damage you are in.

God Bless that he is in recovery.

Also as Chuck stated for the Coral Snake, big one is 20". Related to cobras, good thing is that they don't have an articulated jaw, so the only place they can really bite you is the fingers or the skin in between.

Did any see the TV show with the late Steve Erwin in where he was looking for the worlds 10 most venemous snakes and 9 are found in Ausralia. The most venemous snake in the world is the King Brown, he actually took someone with him in case he was bitten. Anyway his wife called and said that there was one in their shed. Went and caught it. Called them all "beauties".
It's a shame he died of a one in a better than million chance of what happened. He understood there was a place for animals like these and tried to teach that.
Not many people like snakes, if I see them I just go around them. The only dangerous snake around here is the Copperhead, and I haven't seen one in 40 years.

I suppose some non-poisonous snakes kill poisonous snakes but rather than wait for this drama to unfold I just let Mr. Winchester settle the matter.

A snake is a vermin just like a rat or a mouse or a cockroach. They're welcome to live a long and prosperous life as long as they do it out of my reach.

Mike, I did get the same e-mail a while back but had deleted it. I just googled it to find the post op photo I posted above. I also got one with similar photos of a patient who had been bitten by a brown recluse spider.....maybe a little worse than the rattler!

I had a fascination with a TV show called "Venom ER" which follows a real-life young Loma Linda physician, Sean Bush, who specializes in invenomation by nasty critters. Very interesting. It followed some incredibly miserable patients and a few didn't make it. The most serious were usually bitten by a rattlesnake that lives there and the name escapes me right now, but it seems it had "green' and "pacific" as part of its name. I don't think self care and no medical follow-up with one of those bites is an option. Google "Venom ER" for more info.

Here's a very interesting site for Rattlesnakes. http://www.scsc.k12.ar.us/2002Outwest/NaturalHistory/Projects/WatkinsR/default.htm

Also this is there and should explain a few things.
What is venom and is it the same as poison? No. Most people are confused on this point. Animal venom is injected into the victim and poison in consumed in some fashion. Most people make the assumption that if it is harmful, it is poison. Venom has the ability to do many different things depending on the variety. Each rattlesnake species has evolved with different forms of venom to obtain their food. The venom has the ability to paralyze, cause respiratory arrest or the breakdown of the blood. All venoms start the digestion process, enabling the snake to digest its prey more quickly.
This is why that boys arm looked so bad, TIME without medical help.

We have around 15 species of rattlesnake here in Arizona and the most dangerous from what I know is the Mohave. We have a fatal bite from this species awhile back.
Here's a link with info about the Mohave:
http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/pages/c.s.scutulatus.html
Jim

I am fortunate enough to be able to spend 100+ days in the field, bird hunting. Almost all of that is in Rattlesnake country. Kansas, Nebraska and eastern Montana. We have, here at the home place "Prairie Rattlers" nasty buggers. I suggest to all who come to hunt that they have their dogs vaccinated, and on the advice of several local vets, to carry antihistamines. We have had a dog bitten, he had his shots. We dosed him with antihistamines, got him to a vet in Benkleman, Ne. asap. He was under the weather for a bit but not lost. Bit in the face. We keep a bunch of horses here, and one gets bitten now and then, usually in the nose/face. If we catch it quick, a short section of garden hose is run down the nasal passage, so they can breathe after the major swelling starts and then to the vet. I was bitten 2 years ago, got off the tractor to move a piece of tin, got bit on the back of my right hand. I had (always) heavy work gloves on, and the snake got caught in the canvas top. Diane said it was pretty funny, me trying to shake the snake off my right hand, while going for my snake shooter with my left. Said shooter being in right hand hip pocket. Try it! Anyhow not much damage, small puncture only. We try to avoid cover adjoining prairie dog towns and soap weed flats in warm weather. Be careful out there....

If I were smarter than I am I would write a Pulitzer Prize winning novel based around the movement that seems to have swept the 'civilized' world in the past 25 years, the idea that there is no good or bad in the world, no right or wrong, only different viewpoints.

100 years ago, snakes got a belly full of lead and no one thought twice about it. Thieves and child molesters got stuffed in a dark hole and Oprah didn't do specials on their plight. When countries fought, they united against one another instead of half of one country siding with the other guys. If they had airports 100 years ago, anyone with a beard and a towel on their head would have automatically gotten a long talking to behind the woodshed.

In my opinion, it is this basic craving for 'no right or wrong' that will slowly decay our civilization and allow less civilized cultures to take over. I believe there is good and bad in this world, and, on an admittedly much smaller scale, snakes fall on the the wrong side of that line when they get near humans.

I think that we have been convinced for so long that we are the sole determiners of what is right and wrong that we have lost some of our own civilization already by our own doing. It's unfortunate but maybe we can work to reclaim it in the future.

But this is OT. Every snake is not inherently bad and neither is every culture. But we do need to better understand what they each are about, and I just learned that surviving a rattlesnake bite is only a very small part of the overall story.

Wow! This is getting deep.......Way over my head, I thought we were talking about rattlesnakes, now we are off onto saving the world.What we we need is runs at the mouth to jump in with some gibberish about when he met the Dali Lama riding his harley on the way to law school.......stopping by a gun shop on the way to his engineering job, down the street from Bill Clinton.....AND don't forget to send jOe the parker...

Baby Texas rattler sent by a reader

Well I can honestly say I've never had an experience with a rattle snake; but those danged yellow jackets surely tore me up again over the weekend! It seems that every summer I get into one or two nests of those varmits just working in my yard. And dogs and yellow jackets don't mix well either; twice my labs have stumbled across a nest of yellow jackets, then run between my legs for help. On both occasions the dog and yours truly were stung unmercifully; you talk about 24 hours of misery!
And sometimes cattle and dogs don't mix well either. Several years ago I was checking the dove field on my brother's farm. My brother had a heard of 60 cows; many of which had young calves and had suffered harrassment by coyotes. The lead cow apparently mistook my Lab for a coyote and lead a stampede with full intentions of stomping my her butt into the dust; at which time she promptly sought refuge between my legs. I couldn't run so all I could think to do was punch the lead cow on her snout with all my might. This stopped her charge cold; but one of the other cows hit me hit a good lick and spun me around. My 3 year old nephew, who was with me at the time, had also run to me seeking safety so I was holding him in my other arm; but the blow from the cow caused me to loose my balance. Knowing I was about to be seriously trampled, I managed to get his body under me as I fell, hoping he would be protected; then we disappeared in a thick cloud of red dust. The good Lord just wasn't ready for me, for when the dust settled, other than a badly bruised elbow and wrist, I was fine (according to the x-rays); and my nephew, other than being terrified, was unscathed. Yes, being a dog owner can be a little hazardous at times; but I've never enjoyed my hunting experiences more than when I was with a good dog!

Not quite as impressive (the snake, not the hippie )

Drew.........you made me laugh! It's midnight here now i'm going to bed, enough about rattlers!

Drew.....That hippie with the snake; is that per chance a picture of you from just a few years ago?

While serving my two week naval reserve duty in Charlestown SC, when the Navy base still existed, I asked some locals why they would put one slug and on buck shot in their double barreled shotguns or why they would put two slugs in the magazine and a buck shot in the chamber of their pumps to hunt deer, they would always say "It's the snakes man, the snakes". Now I know what they were talking about!!

Oh my goodness no Tom. That's the rare Hirsute Armaioli Britanicus Trevallicus (the hippie, not the snake )

Drew, I had to go back and look at the picture again after you put the title on it. And yes it does look like his self back then. Another title to add to his growing list.
Also that is an very impressive rattler even for Texas.

A quick'Addendum' to the Idiot holding a "Live" Rattler, S of Tucson, AZ.April 1977.Girl Friend and Self were driving back to "Nap'Town with car load of'Top-Draw' Guns. Way out in the 'Boonies' ran the Volvo over the Rattler, dt had to get the required'Snap-Shot' for the "Lads' back at'Slave HQ,' aka Purdeys,(London)so, "Numknuts" picks up'Dead Rattles' for foto,ah yes the Slightly Squashed Serpent then became like Lash LaRue's Bull-Whip! dt, being a"Quick-Thinker"(6yr Apprenticeship at The Hallowed Hall helped out there!)tried the Snap the towel in the bath-house routine"....bull-shoot Bruce! It did'nt work!!But the Bottle of'Tequila'(Small Shots in Large Quantities did!)I would like to try to cover a Recoil Pad with Rattler! Anyone here tried it???? cc(Green-Horn in the Desert}

I've seen knife scabbards and even pistol grips covered with snake skin so I don't know why it wouldn't work on a recoil pad.
BTW:Crosschisles isn't the only one here to pick one of these critters up!
That's a Colt 38 snubbie with snake loads on my hip.
Jim

Just s few points I need to make about snakebite.Every snake bite from a venomous species does not mean that you were necessarily envenomed. Snakes will bite without injecting venom for a number of reasons,some of which are not understood.Your clothes may have absorbed some of the venom, the snake might be low on juice or he may not inject it for some other reason or you may get a small dose when in fact he is carrying a lethal amount but for some reason does not inject it. Venomous snake bites are serious business but panic is one sure way to make it worse. People have had heart attacks from fright when bitten by a non poisonous species as well as made a poisonous bite worse by with actions caused by unreasoning fear.When in snake country be damn careful where you walk and/or place your hands and be observant, they are very often next to impossible to see.I like snakes but have to agree that any poisonous ones found near human habitation need to be either killed or removed by experts to a more remote location.

Living and hunting (mostly) in Texas my GSPs get the Red Rock rattle snake shots. The local vet sez they do work, but bring the dog in for sure if he is bitten.

I killed no rattlers last year, but killed 5 the year before. Almost got bitten stepping out of the garage door one November night; I saw him just in time. A few months earlier a 5 footer was under the bird bath; that one almost got me as well. He was 3 feet from my face, all coiled up and ready to rumble. They lost the fight to my 20 ga. and nr 6 shot.

And I am very cautious, wear boots or snake boots even in the yard.

I shoot the SOBs no matter what. If my dogs show any interest at all, they get a reminder from Mr Edison to lay off.

A Copperhead did get me years ago and I still carry the marks and the grudge. But, I know my snakes and like and protect the non-venemous ones.

By the way, that Western Diamondback in the picture from Amarillo was 9 feet 1 inch long and weighed 93 pounds, according to the Amarillo paper. What a monster.

Quailnut

I must strongly disagree that the snake pictured weighed anywhere near 93 pounds. I am unaware of any rattler that ever topped 7 1/2 feet in modern times as measured by reliable officials and not in the field by excited locals. The guy holding the snake doesn't appear to be straining a bit and believe me to hold nearly 100 pounds in a manner like that you would be straining. I am a 250 pound former competing powerlifter and I tried it with 50 pounds in a similiar position and no way is that snake anywhere that size,regardless of what the newspaper said.Sort of like holding the bass out toward the photographer when you catch a 5 pounder, it looks bigger than it is,much bigger.

this is an interesting post as noted earlier we here in Australia have a few snakes in the top 10 most venomous I think the King Brown may be well up there but I thought there were some deadlier I think the Death Adder in the Northern Territory rates right up there and the Tiger Snake from the Southern States if it injected venom it would be the the most dangerous
The Tiger Snakes venom rums down the outside of its fangs rather than being injected or something along those lines
FWIW Snakes are totally protected in Australia unless they pose a threat
Considering the dangerous snakes in Australia most would sooner get out of your way they tend to not want to be around people death by Snake bite happens but isn't that common at least you don't hear about it
So what is the story with Rattle Snakes? do they tend to get out of your way or more inclined to hold there ground and have a go at you?

I'd sooner have a few more field mice on my place - the copperheads get nixed every chance I get.

Back when I lived in Pa. and much younger then, 13-16 yrs I used to hunt rattle snakes, copperheads and anything that moved. I was never bitten and not a close call either. I was not afraid of them, nor worried to much about getting bit. Some of the non -fear is just being a young person. But I did know alot about snakes. But even today I woul have no problems going back and doing it. The one gentlemen is correct in saying that you do not get injected with every bite. Sometimes a snake has taken a meal and then you do not get a full dose, or he just does not do it.

I had a fellow who I knew pretty well in Benezette area of PA. His name Bill Smith, he was like the mountain type man. He hunting rattles everyear and I would go by to see him. He would have a cage just jammed packed with rattle snakes, just piled on top of each other. Of course he had been bitten many times and had built up a resistance to the bites. I know you can do this as there is a fellow in Florida( Haas) who is world famous who has injected himself with venoum of various snakes and has built a resistance to it.

If you do get bit, the worst thing you can do is to panic, or use the old method of cutting the wound to get the poison out.

Use ice if you have it.

Actually, snake bites are rare in comparison to other forms of injuries. But naturally when when happens you hear about it.


John Boyd

Well, I guess it's time for the old story of the old two buddies, Joe and BIll, who were out golfing one day. They were on the back 9 when Joe said he had to take a leak. He dropped his 5 Iron for a minute and went into the woods and started watering the bushes. Unfortunately for Joe, a large rattlesnake happened to be there and it sprang up and bit the end of his...putter. Joe came stumbling out of the woods and told Bill what happened. "Don't panic!", said Bill, "Lie down on the fairway, don't move, and I'll go try to find a doctor!" So Bill ran as fast as he could through 8 holes of golf course all the way back to the clubhouse. "Is there a doctor in the house?!" he cried.

As luck would have it, a group of doctors had just finished their round of golf and were sitting down for lunch. There was an ER doctor, a neurologist, a nationally known snakebite expert, a surgeon, and a general practitioner. "Don't worry", they told Bill, "Just make an incision slightly above the bitemark, suck out the venom, spit it on the ground, and everyone will be fine."

"OK," puffed Bill, "Let me make sure I've got this right. I make an incision slightly above the bitemark, suck out the venom, spit it on the ground, and everyone will be fine."

"That's right" the team of doctors told him.

So Bill ran all the way back to Bill, all the while repeating to himself the instructions the doctors had given him. Finally he reached Joe. "Did you find any doctors?" asked Joe.

"Yes" replied Bill, "A whole team of experts!"

"What did they say?" asked Joe.

Bill took a deep breath and put his hand on Joe's shoulder. "They said you're gonna die."

Three times in six years my dogs have been bitten by rattlesnakes. I never saw the offending snake. A friend says the Prairie rattler is more aggressive than the Western Diamondback - we have both. I have had a few close calls in my 53 years but never bitten. I don't have experience with other poisonous snakes to compare them to so I would say they are just common here. Where I live they hibernate from late November until the end of February which closely matches quail season here. The bite incidents have all been while we were out exercising in the early Spring. I sometimes see them coiled up and pissed and sometimes crawling off, unmolested in both cases.

I tend to find them near lots of rodents. In the bar ditches (draingage ditches along the roads), Red Gopher fields, prairied dog fields. Also areas with lots of rabbits attract them.

Best,

Mike

Sometimes they inject venom sometime they don't, sometimes they stand their ground sometimes they don't....they're unpredictable making them even more dangerous!!