Posted on 11/17/2011 5:50:49 PM PST by Morgana
UPDATE: Thursday 11/17 @ 6:55 p.m. MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A young woman has already undergone four surgeries and is still in intensive care after suffering not one, but two copperhead snake bites.
Tara Williams, 21, of Logan was on a hunting trip with her boyfriend three weeks ago in Ritchie County when she stepped on a large copperhead snake. Click here to find out more!
Tara's mom tells WSAZ.com, the snake snapped at her and bit her twice and her boyfriend drove her to the hospital.
"Right now, mentally, she's having a hard time with this," said Tara's mother Mitzi Williams. "You know this is going to be rehabilitating for her."
Tara was on a ventilator Wednesday night as doctors removed part of her calf muscle and continued to try and relieve pressure.
Tara's mother, Mitzi Williams, is a nurse and has been by Tara's side since the accident.
"I mean I'm on the other side of the fence now," said Mitzi Williams. "You know I help others and it's different when it's your own -- it's hard to handle."
It's a painful reality as Tara's leg had to be sliced open to relieve the swelling and pressure.
She spent three days in the emergency room and a couple weeks later is when things took a turn for the worse.
Her mother says she was getting sick from the anti-venom and suffered more swelling.
"When this all happened to her, she knew, she knew what was going on," said Mitzi Williams. "She was terrified, frightened, she knew what it was coming to."
Familiar with the signs and symptoms as a respiratory therapy grad, Tara is now putting her faith in her surgeon's hands.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsaz.com ...
Copperheads are hard to see? I spot them right off! Like the one I saw sleeping on the path in post 13! Then again I am used to being in the country and I keep an eye out for them and that may be why. This girl may not be as used to the country as I am.
As a teen, I caught copperheads in the hayfields by stepping on them just behind the head with running shoes and grabbing them just behind the head. Copperheads aren’t very fast, but they usually lay in quiet wait to bite passers-by (or often someone who actually steps on the copperhead). IIRC, they sense body heat from prey. They’re not pit vipers and don’t have long fangs. Wearing thick, tall boots and jeans can sometimes prevent effective bites...sometimes.
You know those little ones are actually MORE poisonus?
Morgana is the only one one this thread with a degree of sense.
Neighbor’s horse got bit by a copperhead, once - it’s face rotted off.
“You know those little ones are actually MORE poisonus?”
that is actually an urban legand.
They are not more poisonous they are AS poisonous. Meaning their venom is equal to that of adult snakes.
When I was about 5 or so, I found a bunch of yellow jacket wasps. I walked up to my mom, who was talking to a neighbor and tugged on her dress repeatedly. Finally she acknowledged me and I opened my hand to show her several fully alive wasps, none of whom stung me. That scream is probably still echoing!
The Lord really does look after fools and small children.
Should have stayed in Alaska. ;)
Measured by toxicity per gram, more poisonus.
Copperhead ARE pit vipers.
They used to joke with us Texans in Alaska.
You could tell the newly arrived Texans in Alaska; when walking in the woods, we would be watching the ground.
They told us to quit looking for snakes and spiders. The things that kill and hurt you up there are big and you can see them coming.
Yeah, mosquitos. Saw one fly away with a rabit in each talon, once.
When I was about 5 I climbed into a bunch of bamboo, the yellow jackets found me, and did they ever have fun.
We used to say here in Texas that nuthin’ kin ruin a squirrel hunt like seein’ a copperhead. Won’t see no squirrels rest of the day!....
When my dad was a kid he was bitten on the middle finger tip by a copperhead. It killed the meat on the side of his last digit and he had a half a fingernail and kind of pointed fingertip for the rest of his life.
The cottonmouth bite he got on his foot when he was a kid healed much better.
When I was a kid in Missouri, I used to catch snakes all the time at summer camp. One day I brought back a copperhead I caught that was curled up in a bush. Never seen such a look on the counselor’s face before...
A copperhead laying in a combination of fallen pinestraw and oak leaves (like most of the south looks today) is nearly impossible to see. The coloring is an exact match.
Every copperhead bite I have heard about resulted in necrotic loss of flesh and muscle. Disfiguring and long rehab time.
My daddy once told me he saw an old black about to clear out a brush pile. The old man twisted a dog’s ear to make it yelp. He explained that if a copperhead was in the brush it would emit it’s odor. Don’t know if that’s true but I have experienced it. Very bitter smell.
“You know this is going to be rehabilitating for her.”
Uh, that should read “debilitating”?
LOL. I’ll summon him when I get home.
Tara’s mother, Mitzi Williams, is a nurse and has been by Tara’s side since the accident.
Oh my goodness. A Nurse who doesn’t know the difference between debilitating and rehabilitating.....a victim who is a respiratory therapy grad.....geez. Good Lord spare me an mine from these medical professionals.
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