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FREE LANCE-STAR (Fredericksburg, Virginia) 02 August 08 Stafford County resident recovering from snakebite (Jim Hall)
Linda Fellers hopes to be released from the hospital today, one week after being bitten on her deck by what is believed to have been a copperhead snake.
The snake bit the Stafford County resident on the left leg near the ankle, causing instant pain and swelling.
"He hit me full force," Fellers said. "It was 'whump.'"
The incident happened about 8:30 p.m. last Saturday, when Fellers and her husband, Jack, were headed to the backyard to watch a fireworks display, visible down the Potomac River at Fairview Beach.
The Fellerses have lived at Marlborough Point on the water for 14 years. They've seen plenty of snakes on their property, but until last week they had never been bothered by one.
Earlier that evening, they had been clearing brush and doing yard work in preparation for a party for their Sunday-school class. At dusk, Jack was still inside the house when Linda went to get him to watch the fireworks.
She said she did not see the snake on the second step of her deck.
"He went for me," Fellers said.
Fellers, 52, said the snake was brown and seemed to be about 6 feet long. Doctors at Mary Washington Hospital examined the bite mark and said it was almost certainly from a copperhead, Fellers said.
Fellers went in one direction after the attack and the snake went in the other. The snake was not captured.
Fellers said that first her left leg and then her right leg began to swell and turn black and blue with red blotches.
"It was excruciating," she said.
A rescue crew took her to the Fredericksburg hospital, where doctors in the emergency department were concerned that the snake's poison would worsen her pre-existing breathing problems.
They gave her six vials of an antivenin and a host of other medicines, she said, and watched her closely for 24 hours.
"If they didn't put into motion what they did, I wouldn't be here," she said.
Mary Washington's emergency department treats about 20 snakebite victims each year. About 15 of those victims have been bitten by venomous snakes, almost always copperheads, according to hospital personnel.
The northern copperhead is the only venomous snake in the Fredericksburg area, according to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Fellers said yesterday that her legs are still swollen and bruised, and that she is still having trouble walking.
She said she and her husband will remove some of the shrubs near their house. Less cover for the snakes, she said.
Woman recovering from snakebite

"Fellers, 52, said the snake was brown and seemed to be about 6 feet long. Doctors at Mary Washington Hospital examined the bite mark and said it was almost certainly from a copperhead, Fellers said."

LMAO!!!!!

6 feet? too funny! dang copperheads must be hybridizing with escaped burms again!

orinoco