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Backpacker Magazine – June 2012
Out Alive: Bitten by a Rattlesnake
A dayhiker fights for her life—as her body shuts down.
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Tags:
- Survival |
- Wildlife |
- Health & First Aid |
The Victim: Lorraine Jonsson, 50,
of Los Angeles, CA, was bit on April 23, 2010.
Forget a rattler’s early-warning system: By the time I heard the snake shaking its tail, the three-foot serpent had already sunk its fangs into my ankle. Twice. Within seconds, I started feeling the effects: blurred vision, jelly-like legs, and a horrifying sense of panic.
It was four o’clock on a sunny spring Friday in Franklin Canyon Park, a 605-acre greenspace tucked between Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains, and I had just started my favorite post-work hike. I was charging toward the canyon’s ridge when, a hundred feet into the trail, the camouflaged viper struck. I must have stepped right on it. When I saw it coiled under some brush a foot off the path, it was rattling like an out-of-control sprinkler, and only a second had passed since I felt it strike my inner ankle.
I never expected to run into a snake in this urban-boundary park, in terrain I hike several times a week. I wasn’t alert to a possible encounter and I was underdressed for viper-country hiking (not wearing clothing like pants or boots that could have deflected a bite). The 80℉ day presented ideal basking weather and was fading into evening—when snakes and their prey are typically most active. Also, the reptiles’ hunger and mating hormones peak in spring, making them aggressive hunters with hair-trigger defenses.
After the bite, my small (5’4”, 100 pounds) body immediately started reacting to the toxins coursing through it. My system was pumped full of adrenaline, so I wasn’t initially in pain, but I was frantic with fear. The near-lethal doses of venom worked quickly, beginning to incapacitate me within minutes. Like most rattler bites, mine delivered a blood-thinning, tissue-bursting hemotoxin through twin puncture wounds. The vast majority of victims will survive this type of envenomation, albeit uncomfortably. Bruises and blisters start forming around the bite site within a half hour, the venom’s digestive action starts melting tissue near the wound within six hours, and a victim might suffer aches and nausea for days.
My case, though, was more intense. The snake that bit me injected that standard-issue hemotoxin along with a rare and more powerful neurotoxin that quickly interfered with my brain’s signals to my respiratory system. There are only a few North American species that could deliver such a dangerous bite—either a Southern Pacific or a Mojave Green rattlesnake—but I’d stumbled over one of them in my own backyard. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had to get help fast if I was going to survive.
I hadn’t told anyone where I’d be hiking, and even though I was on the border of a major city, the canyon’s 200-foot hills block most cell signals. I stumbled the short distance to the pavement and fell to the ground, yelling for help and fighting to stay conscious as my muscles trembled with spasms. Luckily, a car appeared within a few minutes. The passing couple pulled me into their backseat and drove through the park until we found a ranger who called an ambulance.
Meanwhile, my entire body continued shutting down; the paramedics didn’t even realize what a severe bite I’d received until they had to resuscitate me en route to the emergency room. I’d stopped breathing as my lungs succumbed to the toxins attacking them. Thankfully, the hospital was only s ix miles away. Within an hour of my bite, doctors administered the first of 116 vials of antivenin that would ultimately save my life.
Over the next three weeks, I stayed in the ICU, tortured by the snake-like hissing sound of the respirator and recovering from massive swelling and organ failure caused by the venom double-whammy. If it hadn’t been for my proximity to the hospital and my healthy heart—thanks in part to those regular canyon hikes—I wouldn’t have made it.
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READERS COMMENTS
yeeah my dad taught me something very useful along time ago. "the only good snake is a dead snake" you can argue this line of thought but it's hard to get bit by a dead snake and yes im aware it's not very echo friendly but I always say people first.
Just stepped on a rattle snake the other day on an elk archery hunt. Had to kill the damn thing because I didn't know what else to do. Scary stuff.
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"I have heard from some that you should sterilize a razor or knife and cut a slit between the two punctures, but I don't see how this would work."
A snake doesn't inject a lot of venom (typically less than 200mg while a lake rattle snake can have up to 800mg available in its glands.
prior to the 70's it was commonly recommended to cut between the fang marks and suck out the venom. In order for this to be effective you have to move fast and a terniquet may help in preventing the spread of the venom while sucking it out. If you are lucky you might get enough venom out to save your life.
From what I have read doctors stopped recommending this becuase you could get an infection from the blade. But the snakes fangs are not sterile so even if you don't use a knife you could still get an infection.
Doctors then studied the use of sucton only. unfortunately that didn't work (the fang marks are too small and the vacuum might collapse the fang holes. Many hospital web sites now don't even recomend a terniquet. As near as I can tell if no one has studied the effectiveness of the cut and suck methode.
So now the only recommendations given out are "get to a hospital". This is not helpful if you are 20 miles from help. My brother recently almost stepped on a rattle snake. there was no rattle and he was at least 20 miles from the nearest road. If I get bit far from help I'll take my chances make a cut 7mm deap(the average length of a fang) , suck, and pray I get enough out.
Love my hiking sticks and Personal Locator Beacon... I hate snakes and there are a ton out this year in my area.
Dan, unless that trail is in a national park, carry a .22 or something next time, and do a favor for the hikers behind you...
I am a junior in college, and I have been nerdishly studying first aid since I was in the 8th grade. (Through a technicality, I have not been able to get my EMT-B yet.)
The first-aid advice in this article is borderline dangerous. Snake bites should ALWAYS be restricted in their ability to circulate venom through your body. It is very important to restrict blood flow back from the wound. Keep the restricting agent about two inches above the swelling. (as Brian said, a turniquet should only be used in an emergency) As far as keeping the wound level with the heart, this is at least bogus. wounds should be kept below the heart if possible.
I have heard from some that you should sterilize a razor or knife and cut a slit between the two punctures, but I don't see how this would work. If the fangs get full penetration, it would seem than you couldn't bleed the poison out. Has anybody else heard of doing this? If so, what are your thoughts on this?
There is a rattlesnake that I have had to cross paths with the last 3 times I hiked this trail. Always in the same area. It never shakes it's rattle but is coiled to strike. I have been luck to always see it in the edge of the trail. It has to be chased away. How do I get rid of it? It's 2 feet long. I was thinking of using Wasp spray. This area of the trail has to be used to reach many other trails. Other than me there is only a few people that use it. They may not be as lucky as I.
All this advice is nonsense. Don't walk on a snakebite. Move away for the snake a few meters and makin sure it or others aren't around find a tree or rock to get out of direct sunlight. Then tie a compression bandage or item of clothing around the limb from the bite towards the body. Do not use a tourniquet unless absolutely necessary. If you have no other choice, walk out.
All this advice is nonsense. Don't walk on a snakebite. Move away for the snake a few meters and makin sure it or others aren't around find a tree or rock to get out of direct sunlight. Then tie a compression bandage or item of clothing around the limb from the bite towards the body. Do not use a tourniquet unless absolutely necessary. If you have no other choice, walk out.
With due respect to JP, his statement that using a walking stick is "all the warning a snake needs to stay out of your way" is dangerously incorrect. Here in colorado, in the lower elevation trails such as the Apex trail, snakes seem to have grown accustomed to heavy traffic of people and bask on the trails and don't move away. I also use a wood stick but that has no effect at all on thesnakes lying in the trail. Beating bushes as you 'bushwack' may help, but on trails it has no effect at all. I've stumbled upon Western Diamondbacks that were virtually invisible, right out in the open, even when we were attentively looking for them. The best advice you can give is just ALWAYS be looking, be very alert in any terrain where rattlers might live, and do NOT assume that just because the trail is heavily travelled that the snakes will get out of your way.
I have hiked in snake country for over 20 years, and have only seen 2 or 3 snakes in all that time, why? I use my hiking STICK (no aluminum poles for me) to beat the brush as I walk, snakes are very sensitive to ground vibrations and will move away from a large animal (you). So dont just mindlessly walk along, use that stick for something usefull. And when I say 'beat the brush' all that means is to kinda poke the brush along the trail and tap the ground as you walk with each step, that is all the warning a snake needs to stay out of your way.
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