Man bitten by rattler on trail in Loma Linda
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:34 pmI hate snakes.
I started up the "Jedi" trail in Loma Linda this afternoon, about 1:00, and almost immediately came across a man walking with a limp and trying to hold a makeshift tourniquet on his left leg.
I stopped as I came up to him, and he said he'd been bitten by a rattler. He pulled up his pants leg and there were two red spots, far enough apart that it must have been a big one, on his left calf.
He had no symptoms otherwise, but I stayed with him back to his car. Along the way he told me he had been on a trail, but it was narrowing down with a bit of overgrowth. He heard a hiss, then something hit his leg. He looked down and saw "a big red diamondback". He was well back into the canyon at the time, and he had to hike back over an hour before we met.
He was totally lucid, and had no shortness of breath, nausea, faintness, weakness, or anything that I could think of. We figured it must have been a dry bite. In his words, "if it were going to get me, I'd already be dead by now." Said he would go by the hospital just to check it out, but looks like he was one lucky guy.
In any case, thought I'd mention this to keep you all at high awareness this spring (and to scare FIGHT ON to death!). Watch out in those overgrown spots where you can't see much of the trail!
z
I started up the "Jedi" trail in Loma Linda this afternoon, about 1:00, and almost immediately came across a man walking with a limp and trying to hold a makeshift tourniquet on his left leg.
I stopped as I came up to him, and he said he'd been bitten by a rattler. He pulled up his pants leg and there were two red spots, far enough apart that it must have been a big one, on his left calf.
He had no symptoms otherwise, but I stayed with him back to his car. Along the way he told me he had been on a trail, but it was narrowing down with a bit of overgrowth. He heard a hiss, then something hit his leg. He looked down and saw "a big red diamondback". He was well back into the canyon at the time, and he had to hike back over an hour before we met.
He was totally lucid, and had no shortness of breath, nausea, faintness, weakness, or anything that I could think of. We figured it must have been a dry bite. In his words, "if it were going to get me, I'd already be dead by now." Said he would go by the hospital just to check it out, but looks like he was one lucky guy.
In any case, thought I'd mention this to keep you all at high awareness this spring (and to scare FIGHT ON to death!). Watch out in those overgrown spots where you can't see much of the trail!
z
I was already getting freaked out enough just by reading along and then you had to say THAT!:(
. .