Man hospitalized after snakebite
Marion breeder in serious condition
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Holly Zachariah
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
With 200 snakes inside his Marion home, Michael Jolliff has been bitten plenty of times.
This time, something went terribly wrong.
Maybe the Western diamondback rattler struck a vein Thursday night, maybe it sent a particularly massive dose of venom coursing through Jolliff’s bloodstream.
All anyone knows for sure is that the snake breeder now lies in a Columbus hospital bed, unconscious, fighting for his life.
Kentucky Reptile Zoo Director Jim Harrison houses one of the world’s largest collections of venomous snakes and has been a consultant on bites for more than 20 years. He’s met Jolliff.
Harrison said he was saddened but not surprised to hear about Jolliff’s latest reaction.
"That’s the problem with snakebites, you can’t pigeonhole them," Harrison said. "Each one is very different."
Marion police say Jolliff — who has long kept snakes inside his home in northwestern Marion — was showing Ray Smelzer, a friend and potential customer, a python just after 11 p.m.
Jolliff reached into a cabinet to get another and grabbed the Western diamondback rattler instead, authorities said. The snake bit Jolliff’s thumb.
"He told Smelzer that he’d been bit, and that he’d better get him to a hospital," said Lt. Dave Clark, of the Marion Police Department. "He grabbed some serum, but we don’t know if he got a chance to use it."
The pair left the house immediately, Clark said, but by the time they arrived at the closest Marion fire station, Jolliff, 32, was unconscious.
Late last night, he was listed in serious condition at the Ohio State University Medical Center.
The number of snakebites in the United States each year is not known — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t require reporting — but experts estimate it could be as high as 10,000 and rising. The number of deaths resulting from such bites, however, is fewer than 10 each year.
Two Ohioans died last year from bites.
Jolliff has held an Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ permit to own native species since 2002. In 2003, however, he pleaded guilty to state wildlife misdemeanor violations for failing to keep proper records and for failing to properly tag a reptile.
Exotic animals — such as the Western diamondback — are regulated locally. Marion has no law governing the housing of snakes, said Kandy Klosterman of the department’s Division of Wildlife.
Harrison, who extracts snake venom as many as 1,000 times a week for serum, said even if Jolliff had the proper serum at his home, it likely wouldn’t have helped immediately.
"In some cases, for some snakes, it takes as much as 50 vials intravenously," Harrison said. "The most important thing is to . . . get to a hospital and help them understand exactly who to call and what to do."
Harrison has been bitten many times, more than once by a Western diamondback. The poison from that snake — which is the second-most common venomous snake in the United States — prevents blood clotting and attacks the muscles. The patient usually recovers.
Bites, he said, are just something snake owners get used to.
"If you play with guns, eventually you could get shot," he said. "If you handle snakes, eventually you could get bit. It’s a risk."
hzachariah@dispatch.com
Michael Jolliff Snakebite
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Chris Law
U.A.P.P.E.A.L. (Uniting a Proactive Primate and Exotic Animal League)
Herpetoculture Element Representative
