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KUSA (Denver, Colorado) 17 October 05 Toddler bitten by rattlesnake in stable condition (Paul Johnson)
Denver: An 18-month-old boy who was bitten by a baby rattler over the weekend is recovering at Children's Hospital.
Ty "Josh" Sampson was bitten Sunday outside his home near the town of Briggsdale in Weld County.
Emergency workers were called to the home once it was discovered the boy was suffering from a snakebite. Sampson was airlifted to Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley where he was treated with anti-venom. He was later flown to Children's Hospital in Denver.
Ty's mother admitted Monday that she is still "a little freaked out" by the accident. "I'm praying that he will recover soon," she said. The finger that was bitten is badly swollen and purple.
The snake that bit Sampson was found and killed. It was a baby rattler that measured between 4 and 5 inches long.
Rattlesnakes bite about 1,000 people annually in the United States. Less than a dozen die from those bites in an average year.
Rattlers are usually most active in the spring when they come out of hibernation looking for food. The optimum temperature for them is between 77 and 89 degrees.

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GREELEY TRIBUNE (Colorado) 18 October 05 Toddler recovering from rattler bite (Mike Peters)
Photo at URL below: Leonard Will shows the dead baby rattlesnake that bit his grandson, Ty "Josh" Sampson. (Mike Peters)
A 2-year-old rural Weld County boy bitten by a rattlesnake Sunday is improving at Children's Hospital in Denver, and his grandfather said they were told he probably won't lose a finger.
Ty "Josh" Sampson was at his grandfather's home near the intersection of Weld County roads 79 and 74 late Sunday when it happened.
"We were inside watching the Bronco game when he walked up with a bug," said the boy's grandfather, Leonard Will. "I told him to take it outside, and then we heard him crying."
When they got to the boy, the adults found his left index finger was bleeding, but they thought at first that it was just a cut. Then they saw the baby rattlesnake.
"We called 911, and the Briggsdale Fire Department got here really fast," Will said. "The first firefighter was here within five minutes."
The Will ranch is about 8 miles south of Briggsdale. Ty's parents are Cora Will and Josh Sampson.
As the parents and granddad watched, the boy's finger first turned white, then started turning purple and began to swell. He said it was only a few minutes until the Air Life helicopter arrived to take the boy to North
Colorado Medical Center in Greeley. From there, he was transferred to Children's Hospital. His grandfather said the boy could come home today.
Rattlesnakes on the plains are not something new to the family, Will said. Sunday morning they went hunting for rattlesnakes at one of the prairie dog colonies on the ranch. Will's father even became something of a legend: "About 30 years ago, up at a prairie dog colony near here, my dad killed 135 rattlers in one day -- with a shovel."
Jennifer Clarke-MacKessy, a zoologist at the University of Northern Colorado, said even though the snake was small, it was still dangerous. "In a baby snake, the venom could even be more toxic than an adult," Clarke-MacKessy said. "But the baby snake can't inject as much venom as an adult." Whatever the number of rattlesnakes in rural Weld County, Will said people become accustomed to them. "If you're going to live out here on the plains, you better get used to them."
The boy was the second person bitten by a rattlesnake in Weld this year. In June, Michelle Erikson of Briggsdale was bitten on the arm by a rattlesnake while working in her garden. She recovered after a brief stay in the hospital.
Toddler recovering from rattler bite