Posted on 01/20/2025 1:26:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
A social media influencer and wildlife enthusiast was hospitalized after a rattlesnake bit him in Dixie County.
David Humphlett, @adventorin on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, travels the United States to find and showcase wildlife, particularly snakes and other reptiles.
The Gainesville resident was searching for snakes on Dec. 18 on Shired Island in Dixie County when a diamondback rattlesnake found him first.
“Welp, I’m cooked,” Humphlett said on video moments after the snake bit his leg. “Alright, that right there is a fantastic Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake that I just got bit in the leg by when I was peeling bark.”
He was peeling bark around a tree in an effort to find another type of snake when he startled the viper.
“And then I just felt, out of nowhere, this intense pain, right in my leg. Honestly, it felt like an alligator,” Humphlett said.
He rushed to a Cross City fire station where he was then taken to UF Health Shands by helicopter.
“My reaction was just like dang it, this is really bad,” Humphlett recounted. “I might lose my leg. It was petty scary because my whole body went numb head to toe.”
A familiar face was waiting for him at the hospital. His wife, a UF Health nurse, was at work.
“Internally, I’m panicking but externally, I’m reassuring him, ‘You’re going to be fine,’” said Emma Rynear, Humphlett’s wife. “My team here at work helped me run down to the emergency room to be right there as the helicopter landed.”
Doctors gave him 88 vials of antivenom as his leg swelled from the snake’s venom. After 13 days, he remains in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
The couple says the community’s support has been incredible.
“That’s just the God we serve,” said Rynear. “He turns things that seem crappy and makes them really beautiful.”
Despite the life-threatening run-in with the rattlesnake, Humphlett doesn’t blame the animal and views the incident as an educational moment.
“The snake is just doing what it does. It perceived me as a threat and it was just trying to protect itself. I’m not mad at the snake and I don’t want anyone else to be mad at the snake either,” said Humphlett.
He is excited to get back into the wild once released from the hospital. He and his wife set up a gofundme to help pay for Humphlett’s medical bills.
Can anyone tell me if there is a difference between a social media star and an influencer, and, if so, what is the difference?
The Gainesville resident was searching for snakes …The snakes don’t want to be searched for. Leave them alone.
Who picks up the tab for this stupidity?
In the FL panhandle years back my dad killed an Eastern Diamondback, it was 72” without the head. We had tons of water moccasins around, but the rattle snakes were good at hiding, saw a few crossing the road but not out in the woods or fields.
My guess:
Star = has a lot of attention
Influencer = has a lot of attention AND disciples for something they offer or promote like fashion of lifestyle.
Also if not near a hospital, I hear milk thistle is a good remedy for snake bites!
anti-venom is really expensive. Why wasn’t he wearing snake proof waders?
I hate when that happens.
This is how FAFO originated
I know how big those Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes can get.
When I was in the USN back in the Seventies at Cecil Field in Northern Florida, they found one near the runway on the base, and they had a picture of it in the paper.
The guy was standing on the bed of a pickup truck, holding the snake by its neck straight out, and it was so big it was touching the ground and coiled up a bit where it touched it. The thick part of the body looked bigger than the fat end of a Louisville Slugger!
I had absolutely no idea those things could get that big!
We did a lot of stupid crap growing up in the 60’ and 70’s, but we never searched out Rattle Snakes for fun.
A slight difference. A social media star is someone who's videos you watch for education and amusement. An influencer is someone who is trying to sell you something.
His wife started a go fund me campaign, the article says.
Doctors gave him 88 vials of antivenom...
Why A Single Vial Of Antivenom Can Cost $14,000
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-single-vial-antivenom-can-cost-14000-180956564/
He must have done something less than intelligent. Best thing is to leave rattlers alone. They have a job to do.
If you have snakes around, you don’t have to worry about rodents.
That and I’m surprised he didn’t hear the snake was close by before he was bitten.
I grew up in that area of Florida, he’s lucky a helicopter got to him and rushed him back to Shands ICU, that’s 50-60 miles each way
I’ve run up on a rattlesnake in the wild and there is nothing scarier than hearing those rattles go off, you know they are really close by and are warning you to get back or you will be bitten.
He was near the Suwannee River, in a swamp.
You’d think he would wear snake boots.
It reminded me of this:
That said, they do have their weaknesses:
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