KOTA (Rapid City, S Dakota) 20 November 06 Curator bitten by venomous snake (Cindy Davis)
It's not like he hasn't had some close calls as the curator of world's largest reptile collection.
In any given week, Terry Phillip interacts with about a thousand venomous snakes, but October 24th was different.
"It literally was a split second of misjudgment. It's like if you work in an office with paper, you know how to avoid a paper cut, you still get them every now and again, and it's exactly like that."
As he was preparing to package and ship a Western Massasauga rattlesnake to another zoo, he noticed some swelling. When he went in for a closer look, she struck.
"By the time I left the building, which was about 15 steps, there was a pretty noticeable burning sensation around the bite site, and then by the time I got to the office, which was probably 2 minutes, there was an increasing amount of burning pain. You could just feel your finger filling up, like swelling. By the time I got to the hospital, it was basically like I was sticking my finger in a campfire, and just letting it sit there."
An IV was started, and Terry was given six viles of anti-venom first, then another four, for a total of ten viles in ten hours.
Although Reptile Gardens stocks $50,000 worth of exotic anti-venom, Terry went to Regional Hospital for the treatment because the snake that bit him is native to the United States.
"The anti-venom at the hospital is 3 times more expensive then the stuff we had, but it takes 5 or 6 months to get the import permits, documents, and buy the anti-venom, and deal with a third-world country, and all that sort of thing, and it was a lot easier to use their if we can."
He spent a total of 36 hours in hospital care, but the venomous bite affected more than Terry's finger, he says the venom's move through the lymphatic system was excruciating.
A month later, he's still experiencing some of the effects.
"The bones on the back of my hand are still pretty tender. This here is completely numb, I can't feel it, and it's rubber."
It was a wake up call or reminder that he can't get complacent. Fortunately, the snake that bit him is considered non-fatal.
"If it happened with a Sawscale Viper or a Cobra, it could have been a lot worse."
While Terry doesn't blame her for the bite, he's doubly sure he's out of her striking range today.
The terms of their relationship have changed though.
"I actually made a deal with the snakes a long time ago that if they don't bite me, I won't bite them, so the deal's off now."
Curator bitten by venomous snake

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