SerpApi.Org
A 3-year-old girl’s joy at picking up an Amazon package addressed to her at the family’s rural Santa Clarita home turned to terror last week when she picked it up and became the latest Californian to be bit by a rattlesnake.
On July 13, an Amazon package was delivered to the Barajas’ family home for 3-year-old Addy Barajas.
According to a GoFundMe page, when Addy saw the package, she ran to it, excited to open the gift.
“Tragically, a southern pacific rattlesnake was hiding under the brown padded envelope and bit Addy’s left hand,” the family wrote on the fundraising page.
After she was bit, Addy’s mother rushed her to a nearby grocery store parking lot, where they met an ambulance that transported the child to a local hospital, the child’s father, Manuel, told KTLA.
At the hospital Addy was given a dose of antivenom then transferred to another medical facility that had a pediatric intensive care unit. There, she received two additional doses of antivenom over two days, according to the GoFundMe, which will help cover the costs of Addy’s treatment and the family’s lost income from Manuel missing work. The girl is expected to survive.
The incident was the latest in what is proving to be a remarkably busy year for rattlesnake bites.
Why rattlesnake season has been so busy
Experts say unseasonably warm weather patterns at the start of the year signaled to the serpents that they could leave their winter retreats in search of food and mates, increasing the odds of run-ins with people earlier in the year.
Rattlesnake season is usually April to October, with California on average reporting between 290 and 390 bites annually, according to the California Poison Control System.
But halfway through this year, there have already been 277 bites reported in California, along with multiple deaths. Rais Vohra, medical director of the state poison control system, said the reported bites may not represent all snakebites because the agency relies on voluntary reporting from the public and healthcare professionals.
Prior to Addy’s scare, the most recent high-profile rattlesnake incident in California occurred in Butte County, when a man visiting from Idaho was bitten twice and was hospitalized for 12 days. His treatment involved receiving 54 vials of antivenom.
Here’s how antivenom works
Rattlesnake bites are treatable and to have the best outcome for a bite victim, Vohra said, that person must be given antivenom as soon as possible.
That’s because when a snake bites and punctures the skin and transfers venom into the victim’s body, the venom attacks the skin, soft tissue and connective tissue beneath it.
The result can be swelling, bruising, bleeding, blisters and discoloration of the skin. If left untreated, a rattlesnake bite can eventually lead to death.
Antivenom “doesn’t automatically heal the injury that’s already happened, but it could definitely slow down or stop the progression of further tissue damage, which is our goal whenever we’re treating these patients in the emergency room and in the hospital,” Vohra said.
On average, a bitten patient could need between 15 and 20 vials of antivenom treatment.
The amount of antivenom vials a hospital carries is unique to each facility. Cedars-Sinai told The Times in a statement it typically keeps enough vials on hand for the initial treatment of a handful of patients at any given time.
“When we have had complex cases in which a patient required additional anti-venom therapy, we have utilized existing protocols to obtain additional doses from our suppliers,” the statement said.
In Providence’s 11 Southern California medical facilities, it currently has a combined 167 vials on hand.
Providing a patient with additional vials of antivenom is dependent on several factors that include the swelling of the bite area, the patient’s pain level and blood work results, Vohra said.
“As poison control experts, we do try to be as scientific as possible, and we look for objective criteria to re-dose that antivenom because it’s an expensive resource and we understand that hospitals do have limited amounts,” he said. “We want to be able to be responsible stewards of this precious resource, but also make sure that the patient gets the the best treatment.”
In California, two FDA-approved antivenom products, CroFab and Anavip, are supplied to hospitals who then can administer to patients in need.
Antivenom is manufactured by providing a small dose of the harvested venom into either a sheep or horse, which trigger’s the animal’s immune system into creating antibodies. Scientists then distill that blood into antivenom for humans.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
