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Published on 08/05/03

Seek help promptly for venemous snakebites

By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

There was no mistaking the wound on Ashley’s ankle. It was the bite of a venomous snake.

I’d looked at drawings of snakebite wounds in first aid books many times and often wondered if a venomous snake bite actually looked the way it was depicted.

After Tuesday night, I no longer have to wonder. I know.

My daughter, Lindsay, and her friends, Hurston, Phillip, and Ashley, had just returned to our house after spending the day at an amusement park.

It was 10 p.m. and Ashley and Phillip were getting into his car to head home. It was parked off our driveway, near a bed of liriope.

Suddenly, Ashley screamed and at that moment, a carefree day of fun ended.

“Ashley just got bit by a snake!” Phillip cried as he helped Ashley back into our house and onto a chair in the den. Ashley was in obvious pain and understandably very frightened. It took only one look at her ankle to know this was not the work of a harmless snake.

Ashley knew, too.

“It was probably a copperhead” I said, “I’ve killed two in the yard this summer.”

Copperheads are the least dangerous of the venomous snakes in Georgia and that’s just what I told Ashley.

“If it was a copperhead that bit you, then you’ll be all right,” I assured her. “Just keep your foot lower than your heart and let’s get you to the hospital.”

I hoped I was right.

Medical doctors who have experience with bites of venomous snakes of the United States do not completely agree on the details of first-aid treatment of snake bites. What they do agree on is what to do if you are bitten: go to the nearest medical facility immediately, stay calm, and identify the snake if you can do so easily, without putting yourself at risk or wasting valuable time.

On the way to the hospital I asked Ashley about her family and the college she attends. Our conversation helped take her mind off the bite and by the time we got to the emergency room she was noticeably calmer.

The universally accepted treatment for serious snake bites is antivenin or “antivenom” as it is sometimes called. But since we did not actually see the snake, and perhaps because I told the emergency room physician the snake was probably a copperhead, the physician chose to simply monitor Ashley’s reaction to the bite.

I’m curious by nature and wondered how big the snake was that left those fang wounds in Ashley’s ankle. I wondered if there was a correlation between the distance between them and the body length of the snake.

So I measured the distance between the fang wounds with a tongue depressor. They were on either side of the depressor. That made them about 18-19 millimeters apart.

While in the emergency room waiting on her parents to arrive, Ashley said, “My mother’s going to kill me.”

“She’s going to kill you because you got bitten by a snake?” I asked in disbelief.

“No,” Ashley answered, “She’s going to kill me because I skipped classes today to go to Six Flags!”

Ashley recovered very well and was dismissed from the hospital the next day.

Taking my tongue depressor measurements one step further, I concluded the snake that bit Ashley was about three feet long. That’s pretty big for a copperhead.

All I know is, I’m staying away from that liriope.

(Mike Isbell is the Heard County Extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

Mike Isbell is the Heard County extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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