TC PALM (Stuart, Florida) 01 January 07 Jensen Beach snakebite victim says coral snake bit her again (James Kirley)
Jensen Beach: Tricia Facchini was hanging Christmas lights on the front of her home on Sandra Drive one recent evening when her dog started bothering something behind a nearby low decorative wall.
She recalls reaching down to push him away and having a snake attach itself to her right wrist.
"I yanked it off and it bit me again," she said. "Before I yanked it off, I said, 'It's the same colors!'"
Alternating bands of red, yellow and black were familiar to Facchini. She was treated for a venomous coral snake bite Sept. 8 after weeding under a bush a short distance from where she was bitten Dec. 13. Both incidents resulted in antivenin treatments at Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart.
Untreated coral snake bites are potentially fatal. The venom paralyzes muscles used to breathe and victims suffocate.
Few people are bitten in the United States — most estimates are around two dozen per year. The snakes are reclusive and mostly live underground.
If odds are against one person being bitten on two occasions, three months apart, Facchini nevertheless said she has no doubt that is what happened to her.
"The way it got me and how it felt, like it was chewing," she said. (Unlike other venomous snakes native to North America, coral snakes lack long fangs and hang on to what they bite.) "And all that numbness. It started immediately again."
Few, if any, people have been bitten by venomous snakes more often than William Haast, director of Miami Serpentarium Laboratories. The 95-year-old Haast ran the former Miami landmark between 1948 and 1984 and now lives in Punta Gorda.
"It is unusual to be bitten twice — even if it was different coral snakes," Haast said when phoned about Tricia Facchini's most recent trip to Martin Memorial.
He wondered if the snake that bit her Dec. 13 might have been one of three local non-poisonous species that resemble a coral snake in size and color.
Any given place would not be infested with coral snakes, he said, because they do not nest except to lay eggs.
"Coral snakes hatch and dissipate like spokes on a wheel," Haast said. "They would not stay in the same area. They would not find enough food."
He said they eat lizards and other snakes.
No snake was killed, captured or seen by anyone other than Facchini in either incident.
"The (paramedics) looked for it," said Claudia Facchini, Tricia Facchini's partner, who was at the couple's home when the most recent incident took place. "They searched with these big flashlights, and the neighbors came and looked."
Dr. Steven Parr at Martin Memorial's emergency room prescribed antivenin.
"Coral snake bites can be so bad that you start treating the patient based on what the patient and paramedics tell you," Parr said. "Better safe than real sorry."
Parr discussed Tricia Facchini's case, with her permission.
He said there were no obvious marks or tell-tale signs of a snake bite.
"Paramedics put a circle, with some kind of felt-tip pen like a Sharpie, where she said she was bitten," Parr said. "I didn't see any abrasions."
However, he added that a small abrasion could have been obscured by the pen marks.
There is no sure way for doctors to tell the difference between a coral snake bite and the bite of a non-poisonous snake until life-threatening symptoms set in, said Dr. Cynthia Lewis-Younger, managing/medical director of the Florida Poison Information Center at Tampa General Hospital.
By then, it may be too late to avoid the patient spending "weeks or months" on a breathing ventilator, she said, which presents danger of pneumonia and other infections.
"You need to give (antivenin) before symptoms develop," Lewis-Younger said. "It doesn't reverse paralysis, so you need to give it early."
Tricia Facchini said she believes one snake bit her both times and that it may still be in her yard.
Landlords Daniel and Linda Shuee of Port St. Lucie have contacted animal control.
"They said they could not remove snakes unless they were in the house," Linda Shuee said.
The Shuees have offered to let their tenants out of the lease.
"I'm not uncomfortable with their moving, because I know they're just panicked now," Linda Shuee said. "They're nice people."
Snakebite Medicine: Supplies of North American coral snake antivenin are shrinking. Wyeth Pharmaceuticals was the sole maker, and the company closed its Marietta, Pa., plant in 2002. A spokeswoman for Wyeth said recently there was enough stockpiled to last about four years. Research is under way to determine if antivenin still being produced by other companies for South American snakes can be used instead.
Jensen Beach snakebite victim says coral snake bit her again