Reptile & Amphibian Forums

SAMPSON INDEPENDENT (N Carolina) 04 July 06 Beware of the snakes! (Dave Frank)
Nurses at Sampson Regional Medical Center administered 12 viles of anti-venom to a 75-year-old woman who entered the building in stable condition around 10:15 p.m. June 22 but was airlifted three and a half hours later to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill.
A rattlesnake had bitten her.
Keeping with policy, Sampson Regional Medical Center officials declined to release the woman’s name and UNC Hospitals would not release further information unless a name was provided.
Ann Butler, vice president of marketing at Sampson Regional, did say, however, that a venomous snakebite requires at least four viles of Crofab, the $2,000-a-vile medicine used to treat the woman. Up to 16 viles may be needed to treat a given snakebite.
According to Dan Bailey of the Sampson County Cooperative Extension Service, rattlesnakes, as well as copperheads and cottonmouths, are “prevalent” in the county — especially the southern region. When they are by a home, however, it’s usually because they are attracted to a food source, such as rodents.
When snakesbites do occur, they are rarely lethal.
In 2005, the Carolinas Poison Center reported 317 bites statewide — two resulting in death and 16 having a “major effect.” So far this year, they have reported 94 bites — none deadly and two having a “major effect.”
If a bite does occur, though, Michelle Warner, nurse manager at Sampson Regional, said a victim should seek medical attention immediately and not apply ice to the wound or bandage it. This restricts blood to the area and could cause serious tissue damage.
She also said people should be wary of snakes in shrubbery, pinestraw, overgrowth and around their porch.
Sarah Cross, of the North Carolina Wildlife Recourses Commission, said it’s important to remember that 9 out of 10 snakes in North Carolina, such as black racers or king snakes, are non-venomous.
“They’re just as benign as squirrels,” the reptile expert said, adding that even venomous snakes are seldom a threat to people, and the bites that do occur are usually on the hands of males under 30 who are unwisely “playing ‘Crocodile Hunter.’”
“Most importantly, be aware of what the venomous snakes are,” she said. “They have very distinctive looks.
Mike Dorkis, an associate professor of biology at Davidson College, said “you’d pretty much have to step on one to get bit.”
The hepatology lab in his department also runs the Web site, www.herpsofnc.org, which lists detailed information about all the venomous snakes in the county — coperheads, cottonmouths and three types of rattlesnakes: eastern diamondbacks, timber (or canebrakes) and pygmies.
“Like anything, snakes basically just want to be left alone,” he added.
Beware of the snakes!

SAMPSON INDEPENDENT (N Carolina) 06 July 06 Snake-bite victim home and recovering (Dave Frank)
The 75-year-old woman who was airlifted from Clinton to Chapel Hill after being bitten by a rattlesnake has been released from UNC Hospitals and is recovering in her Sampson County home.
Annie Rouse, of 805 Wright Bridge Road, was admitted to Sampson Regional Medical Center the evening of June 22 and administered 12 vials of anti-venom before being transferred to Chapel Hill a few hours later. She was released June 28.
“Ooo, was I sick,” Rouse said. “I couldn't only eat but a bite.”
Rouse was tending the mums in her garden when an 18-inch pygmy rattlesnake bit her on the right wrist. She then quartered the animal with a shovel and put the pieces in a bucket.
“I didn't see it,” she said. “Otherwise, I would have killed him from square one.”
The first person to respond to Rouse's injury was her daughter, Yonna Buchanan.
“I heard her hollering,” Buchanan, who lives next door, said. “I just slammed on some clothes.”
Buchanan loaded both Rouse and the bucket of snake remains into her 1997 black Nissan to bring to the doctors at Sampson Regional.
But they only got a few miles down the road, about 13 miles south of Clinton, when Rouse began losing feeling in her lips and head.
“That little rascal was so full of poison it was pitiful,” Rouse said.
“I was hauling buggy,” Buchanan said. “But she was already passing out.”
Then, as Buchanan talked with 911 dispatch and tried to arrange a place rescue crews could intercept them, the two were pulled over by Corporal Bobby Smith of the Sampson County Sheriff's Department. Buchanan said she initially refused to pull over, but the dispatch operator insisted.
“You have the woman with the snakebite?” Smith asked her when she stopped.
Buchanan said she did.
“Follow me,” he said.
An emergency crew took over near the Dairy Queen on U.S. 701, but dispatch called Smith again two hours later. The hospital needed more of the anti-venom, Crofab, and they needed someone to get more of it from Duplin General Hospital in Kenansville.
“He top-gunned it to get it,” Buchanan said. “He'll never know what I feel for him.”
“I'm just glad she's all right,” Smith said.
But there were complications. Rouse had been taking a blood thinner ever since she had a heart attack two years before, and one of Crofab's effects is to thin the blood.
Doctors were also having troubles finding somewhere for her to be airlifted. Beds were full, helicopters were busy but, finally, a Duke helicopter and a UNC bed freed up.
“It was like everything was in our way,” Buchanan said.
When she arrived at Chapel Hill, though, the medicine and two pints of blood began to stabilize her.
She said she knew she'd be OK when she realized where she was.
Since Rouse returned home last Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Buchanan, a nurse and Buchanan's daughter, Pandora Rackley, have taken turns looking after Rouse.
Rouse, who used to run an upholstery shop in Clinton, said she may not be as active as she was before her heart attack but is getting stronger by the day.
Snake-bite victim home and recovering