This is a Florida Diamondback. I shot it around 200 yards from my parents. The small hole in his head was made by a .30 Tokarev. He was around 7 feet long and really heavy.
Posted on 06/13/2016 7:13:31 PM PDT by Gamecock
COLUMBIA, SC A Columbia-area conservationist died after suffering a snake bite at a Clarendon County wildlife preserve over the weekend.
Wayne M. Grooms, a 71-year-old West Columbia resident, was a Lexington County Soil and Water Conservation district commissioner who was locally well regarded for his knowledge of the natural world.
A rattlesnake bit Grooms late Sunday afternoon while he was visiting Santee National Wildlife Refuge, according to the Clarendon County Coroner’s Office. Grooms died within 15 minutes of the snake bite, but a cause of death has not been determined.
Grooms had a medical condition and an autopsy is to be performed Tuesday at the Medical University of South Carolina, Coroner Hayes Samuels said, declining to disclose the condition.
If it is determined that Grooms died from a snakebite, it would be highly unusual. Only about a half-dozen people are killed nationally each year after being struck by venomous snakes. Samuels said his office rarely has had a call like the one it took Sunday afternoon.
Samuels said the rattler struck Grooms as he was making his way to Lake Marion with a friend in the Cuddo section of the wildlife preserve. After the snake struck Grooms on the lower left leg, the friend tried to help him to the car, but he collapsed and died about 3:55 p.m., Samuels said.
The area of the wildlife refuge where the incident occurred is known as Alligator Alley. It is about seven miles south of Summerton and four miles north of Santee. The Santee National Wildlife Refuge is a 13,000-acre federal preserve established in 1941.The property is southeast of Columbia below Interstate 95.
Grooms, who was born in Australia, was a Vietnam veteran and former employee with Commercial Mass Metals, according to the Lexington County Soil and Water Conservation District and Grooms’ Facebook page. He studied at the University of South Carolina. Two years ago, he was elected to the conservation district board after volunteering with the organization for several years, according to the district.
“I was devastated; this was just so unexpected,’’ said Tina Blum, administrative assistant with the Soil and Water Conservation District. “Wayne was a good guy all around.’’
Kathy Hensley, a soil and water conservation commissioner with Grooms, said he volunteered at the Peachtree Rock Heritage Preserve in Lexington County and was a self-taught naturalist. Every year, he volunteered to speak at schools on Arbor Day and planted trees with the children, she said. Grooms leaves behind a wife and son, she said.
Grooms’ Facebook page was filled Monday with tributes of his life.
“Wayne was a long-time friend of mine and he just filled a void on the conservation district board,’’ Hensley said. “His knowledge about botany and the natural world was just phenomenal.’’
Snake bite response
Most snakes are not venomous and relatively few people die from snake bites. For anyone who is bitten by a venomous snake, the Mayo Clinic and Web MD recommend the following:
-- Move beyond the snake’s striking distance
-- Clean the wound, but do not flush with water.
-- Cover the wound with a clean, dry dressing
-- Don’t drink caffeine or alcohol, which can speed up the rate at which the body absorbs venom
-- Seek medical attention as soon as possible
-- Take note of the type of snake so that a description can be provided to medical staff
SC Ping?
Hey envirowackos and your millenial dupes: your gads nature and ‘da erf’ hate you to death!
Probably age and poor health contributed to his death.
I pretty much stay out of the woods during the Summer months here in NW Florida.
Avoid getting bit whenever possible.
He sounded more like an old fashioned conservationist than a modern environmentalist.
Damn for a second I was really sad. My mind read Conservative and not Conservationist.
Feeling better now. Darwin just handing out awards.
I guess they don’t tell you to put on a tourniquet around your leg and have someone suck out the poison with their mouth anymore.
Sounds like his underlying medical condition might have had something to do with his death. I don’t recall ever hearing of someone dying within 15 minutes of being bitten by a rattlesnake. It’s gotten somewhat unusual for death to occur at all anymore, with the advent of antivenins.
I get Pacific Rattlers here in my neck of the woods. I use the snake shot on those puppies. Killed two so far this year. Some years its more. Saw a six footer slither by but held my shot as it was a Bull Snake. Like those guys. I had two curled up at the sink in the Barn one late Spring. Big boys and girls obviously digesting. They didn’t care about me and in a day they left.
Lately I have had little frogs hanging out at the sink in the barn, Today I had eight little guys hanging out in my funnel and pitcher. Told everyone out of the pool cause I had to work. They jumped up on the pitcher with three or four stacked atop each other and watched as I worked.
I get the frogs in the late spring and in the Winter. I look forward to my little amphibian buddies.
Growing up in the country, we were taught to cut the skin and make an X over the bite with a very sharp knife, then the tourniquet above the bite and then have someone suck the poison out. Also told not to run at all or walk very far as this could cause the poison to spread through your body quicker.
Guess it has changed?
This is a Florida Diamondback. I shot it around 200 yards from my parents. The small hole in his head was made by a .30 Tokarev. He was around 7 feet long and really heavy.
Lemme help these poor ignorant folks out...
He was bit by a Rattlesnake ... 71 Years Old and died.
It would be a “Story” if he “Survived”, if the Venom was injected into him 10’away from his Car that contained a Snakebite kit and the EMT showed within 5 minutes of the bite.
The chances of one happening vice the other are pretty slim.
Now if he was 20 years old... whole different story and yet...
I should have said around 200 yards from my Parent’s house.
I was walking on a dirt road going to fish in a pond. He was stretched out on the edge of a field. I almost did not see him.
Oh, OK.
A friend of mines dog was bitten by a snake and the anti venom that the vet gave the dog was very expensive, several thousand dollars.
One of my dogs was bitten by a copperhead on the end of his nose. It was many years ago and I don't remember it being a big deal.
More people in the U.S. are bitten by copperheads than any other venomous snake. Hardly anyone ever dies from their bite.
They are actually uncommon around here tho I killed two right in my back yard and within 5 minutes of each other. That was the first copperheads I had seen in this area in 50 years.
I remember somebody in the Houston area had a snake bite recently and he had to go to three different hospitals before he found one that had any anti-venom.
Didn’t realize it was so expensive - wonder if it’s covered by Obamacare. LOL
> Probably age and poor health contributed to his death. I pretty much stay out of the woods during the Summer months here in NW Florida.
What makes this especially unexpected isn’t just that only about half a dozen persons are killed nationally yearly. It’s that a grown man bitten by a rattlesnake on the lower leg died within fifteen minutes (and apparently collapsed earlier). The bite caused stress, and perhaps the venom contributed to the death, but almost certainly something else was the primary cause.
I’m in South Carolina and often take walks in the woods in the summer. I’m careful where I step, of course, but sometimes it’s hard to avoid stepping near underbrush in which a poisonous snake could be lying. I consider the risk low, though.
Maybe where you are there are more rattlesnakes, but in decades I’ve only encountered two. One rattled before I saw it, then slithered away. The other was crossing a trail. I kept my distance, but managed to get it to stop and coil, so that I could get a better look. Then I let it go on its way. I wouldn’t want one near my house, but out in the woods I don’t think they pose much of a risk.
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