DAILY NEWS JOURNAL (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) 04 October 06 Snake bite 'not like the movies' (Mary Reeves)
A Saturday encounter with a timber rattlesnake has taught Rockvale's Mike Edwards an important lesson — and it's one he wants to share.
"It's not like it is in the movies."
The 46-year-old was bitten on his index finger early Saturday afternoon while working on his Rockvale farm. He was driven to Murfreesboro, met the ambulance and was taken first to Middle Tennessee Medical Center and then to Vanderbilt, where he stayed through Monday.
Along the way, Mike found out firsthand that Western movie's standard scene — where the cowboy gets bitten by a rattler and his partners tie a tourniquet on his arm, then cut the wound and suck out the venom — can only make the situation worse.
Mike was driven to Cason Lane to meet an ambulance, and while waiting for the emergency team to arrive, encountered a good Samaritan with more good intentions than experience.
"She put a tourniquet on his arm," said Mike's wife, Andrea. "We were on the phone with the EMT who was on his way to us, and he said to take it off."
"The toxicologist at Vanderbilt said the tourniquet just kept all of the venom in one place, and it swelled, which made it harder for the antivenin to get to it," said Mike. "I could have lost my hand, even my arm."
He could have lost more than that— according to Andrea, Mike's condition was critical when they arrived at the hospital, with his blood pressure dangerously low.
"They told me another 10 minutes, and we could have lost him," she said.
"I don't know if that was the tourniquet or not, but the tourniquet didn't help," said Mike.
"There are a lot of nasty, nasty toxins in rattlesnake venom," said Dr. Kevin Beier of Middle Tennessee Medical Center, who specializes in emergency treatment. "It helps them kill rats, then breaks them down to make them easier to digest."
The problem is, he said, is the venom has the same effect on human flesh. Beier said the use of a tourniquet is not completely out of the question, but the circumstances in which one would be used are very rare.
"Some people recommend using constriction bands, some don't," he said. "One reason you would use them would be to slow the venom spread. However, when you trap the venom, it causes tissue damage and necrosis (tissue death)."
Shock, he said, was one factor that could call for the use of a constriction band.
And while there is some discussion of whether or not to sue tourniquets, there is no doubt how Beier feels about the "cut and suck" method.
"Do not do this," he said. "That's been shown not to have been of any benefit and it can increase the effect of infection or damage."
He said even the commercial tools designed to help suck the venom from the wound have not been proven truly effective, and should, in any case, only be used by medical professionals.
Part of the severity of Mike's bite was the fact that the rattlesnake in this case was a young one, and inexperienced in judging how much — if any — venom to use, she said.
"Mike was full of venom," Andrea said.
But the factor that worries Mike and Andrea the most was the "tourniquet treatment," and how many people still think this is the correct first aid.
"You don't tourniquet it, you don't slash it, you don't suck it. You just leave it alone and get to a doctor," said Mike.
Mike has lived on a farm for most of his 46 years, but even he didn't realize that the old concept was now considered dangerous for the victim, and now he wants everyone to know about it.
He also wants to let people know how serious a snakebite can be.
"People think you go to a doctor, you get a shot, you get a little sick to your stomach, then you go home and barbecue in the back yard, and that's it," he said.
The reality is much more frightening, Mike said, and much more painful.
"Within 15 minutes of being bitten, I knew what kind of serious condition I was in," he said. "I was gray, twitching all over — I couldn't control my body, I just kept twitching. You know how your leg falls asleep and you get pins and needles, and it's all tingly? This was like that, only instead of tingles, it was excruciating pain."
He lost vision at one point, "graying out" until he could only see white haze in front of him, and his blood pressure continued to drop.
Other symptoms of snakebite include swelling, faintness, nausea, chills, difficulty breathing and chest pain, according to the American Red Cross. One of the biggest problems is that the fear the victim feels only worsens the condition, allowing the venom to spread faster as the heart speeds up.
"Keep calm," said Beier. "Don't run around, overexert yourself and get your blood flow high."
Beier said that only makes the venom spread to the heart faster.
Although MTMC keeps at least 10-15 vials of antivenin on hand, snakebites are rare.
"A lot of the snakebites we do see are copperheads and non-venomous snakes," he said. "A rattlesnake is much more dangerous."
Most venomous snake bites suffered by humans in Tennessee are from copperheads, and most of the rattlesnake bites are "dry bites," when little or no venom is injected. But fear or inexperience can lead a young rattler to administer heavy and potentially lethal doses.
According to frogsandsnakes.com, half of the snakebites in the U.S. are classified as dry bites. Rattlesnakes (all species) cause about 75 percent of all bites by identified venomous snakes in the US. and an average of 5.5 deaths by snakebite each year in the U.S. — most of those are from rattlesnakes.
Mike counts himself lucky not to be in that 5.5 percent group, and wants to keep everyone else out of it too.
"Don't mess with them," he said of the snakes. "And don't do anything (to the bite) but get to a hospital."
Snake bite 'not like the movies'