Even the babies can put a bad hurt on you.
Rattlesnake bites are rarely fatal to healthy young adults. Most snake bites are not classified as "legimate", i.e., most people bitten by snakes in the U.S. were actually handling the snakes.
The story is "fishy" (or at least reptilian) but you never know. Kittens will fall asleep in your socks draw or an open overnight bag. Why not a baby rattler?
Guy I know served in the Air Force after getting out of college, (in the days of the draft) and spent some time with his Massachusetts born and raised wife in Texas. At the base where they were stationed, people used to catch rattlesnakes at lunch time and turn them in for a $10 bounty to some research lab.
She found a large dead rattler on a jogging track and had her picture taken holding it up at arms length. As you probably know, rattlers are viviparous, they retain their eggs until they hatch. Needless to say, shortly after that picture as taken, hundreds of tiny lillul baby rattlers came slithering out of the big dead old moma rattler.
Guy himself used to chase rattlers with a lasso on a pole and bag them, mostly for sport. Generally, a snake will try to escape but, one day, one big ole boy turned and started chasing him, at about 3 mph. Very uncharacteristic for snakes, even rattlers. Needless to say, he never went "rattlering" again.