doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT - Why I hate rattlesnakes

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