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NORTHERN VIRGINIA DAILY (Strasburg, Virginia) 09 July 08 Eagle Scouts give prompt attention to woman bitten by copperhead (Sally Voth)
Woodstock: Unfortunately for Debora Snarr, bugs were not the only things biting at a Saturday picnic celebrating Independence Day.
Fortunately for the 54-year-old, she was accompanied by a pair of level-headed Eagle Scouts when she was bitten by a copperhead snake on an after-dinner hike.
Kyle Franklin, 18, and A.J. Price, 19, both of Woodstock, wanted to show Snarr's husband, Steve, an area of the mountain that they call Arrowhead.
Despite the lack of a trail and the fact she was just wearing sandals, Mrs. Snarr decided to join them.
Kyle Franklin, left, and A.J. Price say their their skills learned in the Boy Scouts came in handy when Debora Snarr was bitten by a copperhed on Saturday.
"We got in a boat and across the river," she said. "Then we hiked up an embankment and then down the road, and then we headed straight up the mountain. Twenty minutes up the way, we came to a rock formation. We were climbing over the rocks. It was too slippery for me in my sandals.
"I moved to the side of the rocks, took my sandals off so I could grip the earth."
That's when she "felt a real strong prick."
"I saw the head of the snake, but I couldn't tell what type it was," Mrs. Snarr said. "I hollered, 'snakebite!'"
The young men concentrated on calming her down and keeping her heart rate as slow as possible. Her husband tied a bandana around her ankle at her insistence. However, he tied it loosely, knowing proper first aid discourages the use of tourniquets.
Franklin used his cell phone to call Martin French, his Scout leader and one of the picnic's hosts. French then arranged for an ambulance to meet the injured woman and her party.
Franklin asked Mrs. Snarr how big the snake was, saying that young ones have less control in releasing their venom, therefore injecting more than a mature snake would.
On their way back down the mountain, the foot-long copperhead was spotted. Price "terminated" it, said Snarr, who also has a Scout troop.
"It wasn't like a baby baby, but that one would release more [venom] than a mature copperhead would, I'm sure," Franklin said. "I know about the venom and stuff because of the Boy Scout classes we had to take."
It had started to advance on Snarr.
"Copperhead's a snake with an attitude," he said. "It will actually go on the offensive. I've been chased by them."
While she concentrated on remaining calm, trying to keep her heart rate down so the venom would not circulate so fast in her body, Mrs. Snarr, a nurse practitioner who manages the wound care center at Winchester Medical Center, described her pain as an 8 on a scale of 1-10, "like a truck on your foot."
"I knew I didn't have to pay attention to anything of the moment other than settling because I was in great, great hands," she said. "These boys made me put my shoes [back] on."
About 20 minutes after the bite, his wife was in a rescue squad, Snarr said. He had wrapped her ankle loosely enough to put two fingers between it and the bandana.
"[Rescue workers] had to cut it off of her," he said. "Her ankle had started to swell up. We were at the hospital 38 minutes after the snake bite."
Doctors at Shenandoah Memorial Hospital observed Mrs. Snarr in the intensive care unit overnight, but decided antivenin was not needed.
Price said he thought all along that the outcome would be good.
"I knew as quickly as we were taking care of it, she would be fine," he said. "The first 30 minutes are the most critical. I wouldn't say [what we did was] a big deal. I would say that our time in Boy Scouts made it more of a second nature than anything."
Three days later, Mrs. Snarr was still on crutches and painkillers, her foot and ankle greatly swollen with bruising extending to the top of her calf.
"It's still painful," said the mother of three. "It's kind of a burning underneath the skin pain."
French said cell phone communication played a key role in the happy outcome.
"Being able to communicate back and forth, I knew exactly where they were and how long it was going to be," he said.
The Snarrs can laugh about the experience now.
"I think Debora has acquired some kind of taste for rodent kabobs," Snarr joked.
"No, but I might get my tongue split," Mrs. Snarr responded.
Eagle Scouts give prompt attention to woman bitten by copperhead

"It wasn't like a baby baby, but that one would release more [venom] than a mature copperhead would, I'm sure," Franklin said. "I know about the venom and stuff because of the Boy Scout classes we had to take."

Old wives' tale. They teach this crap to eagle scouts?!?

"Copperhead's a snake with an attitude," he said. "It will actually go on the offensive. I've been chased by them."

BS. Copperheads are some of the most docile HOTS

>>"Copperhead's a snake with an attitude," he said. "It will actually go on the offensive. I've been chased by them."
>>
>> BS. Copperheads are some of the most docile HOTS

This is not universally true, but yeah, in my opinion most people who say a snake went on the offensive would probably think a garden hose was chasing them if they mistook it for a snake...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.