OPELIKA-AUBURN NEWS (Opelika, Alabama) 02 August 07 Five-year-old recovering after copperhead snake bite (Lindsay Field)
One 5-year-old will have an interesting show-and-tell story to share with friends when he starts kindergarten in two weeks.
Hagan Marlin was bitten by a copperhead snake in the backyard of his home in Opelika off South Uniroyal Road on Monday. Heidi Marlin, Hagan’s mother, said she still isn’t completely sure how he was bitten, because she’s gotten three different stories from her nature-loving son.
“Originally he told the ER doctor in Opelika that he wanted to pet the snake,” she said. “Early Tuesday he told the doctor in Birmingham that he thought it was a King Cobra that he had seen on the Animal Planet and knew that when you put your hand down by it they flare their hood, so he put his hand down so he’d flare his hood.”
Later that day, Hagan told Marlin’s mother, “snakes don’t like it when you pull them out of their houses, they get really mad.”
“He told her that the snake was halfway out of his house and he pulled it out of the (wood pile) and it bit him, so he hit it with a stick,” Marlin said. “My mother asked if that’s when the snake bit him again and Hagan said that if the snake bit him twice he should have hit it again.”
As soon as Hagan was bitten, he came running into the house to get his mother, screaming and crying. As Marlin tried to search for the snake in the backyard she called 911.
“I couldn’t find it, so I had Hagan come back out and show me where he was,” she said. “I held the snake with a shovel until the police got there, and the police officer shot him.”
“Seeing them is not common, but finding them around human activity is not uncommon,” said Jim Armstrong, AU professor and Alabama Cooperative Extension Service agent.
Copperheads can be found in wooded areas, near rocky areas or among stacks of lumber.
“I’ve been in Auburn for 17 years and can only think of five copperheads I’ve seen, but then there may be somebody else that may see two a week,” Armstrong said.
Marlin put the snake in a Ziploc bag and they took it to the emergency room with them.
“As soon as the doctors and nurses saw it, they said it was a copperhead,” she said. “I thought I was going to throw up when they told me that.”
East Alabama Medical Center has treated eight venomous reptile bites this year.
According to the North Carolina Extension Service Web site, a copperhead snake bite needs medical attention, is extremely painful, and may cause extensive scarring and loss of use. Many people are bitten while trying to kill or handle the snake. The site advises people not take chances - simply avoid these snakes.
It took the hospital about an hour to get the anti-venom ready, before the 5-year-old was air lifted to the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.
“The toxicologist there, who sees every snake, insect and spider bite that comes through the door, said it was one of the worst snake bites she’s ever seen,” Marlin said. “There was concern in the beginning that he was going to lose it, but it’s okay right now. We’ll have to follow up with a plastic surgeon in Opelika though.”
Dr. Craig Guyer, biological sciences professor at Auburn University, said it’s extremely unusual for a copperhead snake to bite.
“You’re more likely to die from a bee sting than a snake bite,” he said. “For people who bump into these creatures in nature, the best thing is to observe from a distance. Unfortunately we have all these TV nature shows with charismatic hosts that make it look fun to just pick them up.”
Armstrong said some people tend to react more violently to snake bites, but there’s no way to know how you’ll react until you’re bit.
“In generally, copperhead bites are not as bad, or people don’t react as strongly, but that’s extremely variable,” he said.
“(Hagan is) great, doing wonderful, the typical bouncing-off-the-walls Hagan,” Marlin concluded. “He’s already asking if he can catch lizards when he gets home.”
Hagan has to keep his hand bandaged up for a few days, to keep it clean and limit any trauma to it, but otherwise he is OK.
Marlin said this won’t be the end of her son’s obsession with creepy, crawly creatures though.
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