BIRMINGHAM NEWS (Alabama) 02 November 05 Snakebites require fast action, gardener discovers (Hannah Wolfson)

Sometimes, the serpent in the garden is more than a Bible reference.

Just ask Allison Pritchard.

The Mountain Brook resident is recovering from a copperhead snake bite she received Oct. 28 in her Crestline garden. She said she's worried that more people in the area could be bitten.

"Everybody needs to be really careful," she said. "There are a lot of people that have seen them."

Dr. Ziad Kazzi, a medical toxicologist at UAB who treated Pritchard, said snakes are common around Birmingham, especially in the wooded over-the-mountain communities. They're usually active between April and October or November, and he estimated he treated five bites this summer.

"All these houses in Vestavia Hills, in Hoover, in Mountain Brook, there are a lot of mountains there," Kazzi said. "Snakes have acclimatized to the human developments of cities. They're used to it."

Pritchard, the wife of Mountain Brook City Councilman Billy Pritchard, was scooping up a pile of weeds and other debris she had left overnight on her patio when she felt a sharp pain in her hand.

"I never saw the snake," she said. "I reached down and I felt the immediate pain from the bite, and I still didn't know exactly what had happened."

Her husband killed the 18-inch snake, and they rushed to the Mountain Brook Fire Department, where rescue workers put her on an I.V. as the swelling spread from her hand to above her elbow. The rescue workers transported her to UAB Hospital, where Kazzi administered several doses of antivenin.

After 36 hours in intensive care - a necessity because the antivenin can cause dangerous side effects - Pritchard is back home, and her hand is healing fine, although there's still a chance of reaction.

Not all snakebite victims are so lucky. Although copperheads are rarely fatal, Kazzi said, they can cause permanent damage to swollen limbs.
Snakebites require fast action, gardener discovers

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