Posted on 05/02/2018 4:09:38 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
A 57-year-old man in Oklahoma is dead after being bitten by a rattlesnake, his wife said. Barry Lester was driving in Osage County on Sunday when he saw the snake in the middle of the road and decided to stop and move it out of the way, the Tulsa World reported. But during the attempt the rattler bit him — twice. “It bit his left hand, and then he put it in his right and it bit that hand too,” Lester's wife, Roberta, told the newspaper. The couple was traveling to Keystone Lake when the incident occured. “We were just going to walk and have a day outside enjoying the lake. It was his birthday,” she said. After realizing he was bit, Barry told his wife they needed to go to the hospital. The couple rushed to meet the ambulance at their Turley home, which would then take Lester to a hospital in nearby Tulsa. But then Lester's head suddenly dropped — and "that was it," Roberta said. Emergency officials tried to revive the 57-year-old but it was too late. Barry died from a “combination of the rattlesnake bite and an existing heart condition," according to the Tulsa World. Barry had wrangled snakes before, Roberta told the Tulsa World, which is why he was confident he would be able to remove the rattler from the road. But now his wife has a warning for others: "Don’t mess with snakes. If you hear it rattling, you leave it alone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
We have chicken/rat snakes around the house that we leave for rodent control....rattlers...no way.
We have more copperheads than anything, but a venomous snake around my place is a dead snake.
Well, then you have never run into the deadly Icelandic Jungle Rat.
They jump out of the trees and gnaw off your nose.
There only known predator is the Icelandic Pissing Cobra.
“I use a hoe, best snake tool there is.”
Smart thinking - and if she gets bit your only out $20. Well, $40 I suppose if you need to hire another one to move your snake.
“Why sure honey - I’ll move your snake.”
I capped one taking a pee on a creosote bush.
Where’s my pistol? here’s my gun..
Switch hands! Never splashed my boots!
To be fair, I probably didn’t hear the rattler until peeing because I was wearing a motorcycle helmet and really had to go!
Especially after it bit him once! So much for “once bitten, twice shy”.
I would just run it over.
“Don’t do it.”
In my opinion, electroshock is a viable treatment. But this is not medical advice, as I am not a medical doctor. There is a significant amount of research. There are pros and cons. Here is one compilation:
http://venomshock.wikidot.com/
With its dying breath, the snake asked the truck driver, “Why did you run me over?” The driver replied, “You knew I was a Texan before you decided to cross!”
You were probably wearing rattlesnake skin boots, and the poor, lonely creature thought he’d finally found a rattlesnake buddy.
And then you peed on him.
Somewhere, there is a rattlesnake in group therapy telling everyone about how you gave him his worst day.
RIP.
It was a sad day for Floyd...
It is pure folklore that took off.
I dont like to kill any kind of snake. A good size cottonmouth was in the road in front of my house in Febuary.For the most part if you leave them alone everything will be fine. As long as you see them first. A couple years ago I was casting a net for shad standing on a river bank. Me and my wife and a cottonmouth cane from behind us about 3 feet from us and went into the water. We never saw it until it was right beside us.
Growing up in the fifties I learned you stomp the brakes so the tire will slide across the snake. Just running over probably won’t kill it.
Cotton Mouths will attack during mating season.
No question that getting bit is a traumatic experience. And the part about mostly non-fatal applies to people who get timely medical care. According to one doctor, the venom is also getting more deadly.
Their venom is extremely potent. “The venom of most rattlesnake species is composed mainly of hemotoxins,” Viernum said. “Symptoms include temporary and/or permanent tissue and muscle damage, loss of an extremity depending on the location of the bite, internal bleeding, and extreme pain around the injection area.”
Some rattlesnake species have venom that contains neurotoxins. “Mojave, tiger, and speckled rattlesnakes are examples of rattlesnakes where either the entire species or certain populations within the species produce neurotoxins,” said Viernum. She explained that neurotoxins act faster than hemotoxins and attack the nervous system. “Symptoms from a neurotoxic rattlesnake bite include problems with vision, difficulty swallowing and speaking, skeletal muscle weakness, difficulty breathing, and respiratory failure.”
Nevertheless, Viernum reinforced the idea that fatalities from rattlesnake bites are rare if treated in a timely manner.
According to DesertUSA, there is some evidence that rattlesnake venom is becoming more neurotoxic across the board, which may be an evolutionary strategy, as some rodents are evolving to be more resistant to hemotoxins.
Sad. RIP.
Now I have.
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