A Texas man thought he had bested a rattlesnake by decapitating it, but when he tried to pick up the slain serpent’s head, it bit him and released a potentially fatal dose of venom into his body.
His wife Jennifer Sutcliffe told local news station KIIITV that doctors said he might not survive, but he is now in recovery, thanks to 26 vials of antivenom. Trauma surgeon Michael Halpert told the news outlet the man’s kidney function is weak, but he is stable.
The man was reportedly doing yard work on Memorial Day when he saw the four-foot rattlesnake and used a shovel to behead it. When it bit him, his wife tried to drive him to the hospital, but he began having seizures in the car. She met an ambulance, and then an emergency helicopter rushed him to the hospital.
“That’s kind of a classic mistake. People don’t realize that reptiles and mammals are wired differently,” Leslie Boyer, antivenom doctor and founding Director of the University of Arizona VIPER Institute, told Gizmodo. “The head end of a cut-up rattlesnake can continue to function,
Holy snakebite, WTF!
Added: I’m flipping glad as all get out we don’t have snakes here!!!
Doesn’t this also apply to venomous public employees?
I thought people already knew that. It’s been common knowledge for any number of years. This guy was just careless and payed the idiot tax.
I’m with Organgrinder on this; I knew that the cold-blooded animals still had that capability back when I was a kid. Idiot tax just shy of a Darwin award.
Ole South Carolina water moccasin
will do the same thing but he be MUCH
more poisonous than the rattler and
twice as aggressive.
Found a baby Copperhead when I was looking for scorpions in a wood pile one time.
I cut the head off and put the head and body in a small coffee can in the bed of my truck.
When I got home, my two youngest and a few neighbor kids were at my house so I showed them the snake in the can.
I took my pen to turn the head upside-right.
It clamped down on the pen as soon as the pen touched his mouth.
The kids freaked out. It was at least two hours after I separated the head from the body.
I immediately thought of the old cowboy tale of a rattlesnake ain’t dead all the way until after sunset.
I think reptiles’ muscles can twitch if stimulated regardless if the thing is technically alive or not.
We found a dead, mostly dried, toad one time and when we put it in the sun, it started twitching. It really looked like zombies were real at that point.
I was 8 then.
Dammit, where’s St. Patrick when you need him?
“Snake don’t die till the Sun goes down.”
Was a saying back when I was a kid living in Mississippi.
Gee … 50 years ago? Guess we’ve forgotten a lot.
izlamo delenda est …
Every Texan knows that or has paid the consequences.
“A Decapitated Rattlesnake Is Still Alive and Can Kill You”
great analogy of the deep state in our political system !
i see what you did there bfh.
Deepcapitated Rattlestate…what?
Not just rattlesnakes. I read somewhere some sharks will do the same thing when they’re dead. The wiring is still active for a while after.
lol.
“Doesn’t this also apply to venomous public employees?”
We’ll find out when McCain goes.
The best thing to do wIth a severed rattlesnake head is bury it.
Common knowledge. Also, snakes (reptiles generally) don’t have blood pressure as mammals do. Hack at them, wound them severely and they don’t bleed out as a mammal would.
My wife decapitated a rattler with her Dad’s WW2 machete then retreated indoors. When I got home 2 hours later to dispose of it, both head and body were still responsive. It would have zombie-bit me if I’d given it a chance.
@MJA, I saw a “dead” shark 4 foot long wash up on a Florida beach. Crowd gathered and a drunk surfer decided to take a pic with his hand inside its mouth. Of course the “dead” shark chomped down, idiot was screaming, and hilarity ensued.
Just remember guys, mothers-in-law can do the same.
Ya think they’re dead and buried but they live on….thru their daughters.
I guess it’s not true when they say “A little head never hurt anyone!”
@Vietvet June 7, 2018 at 8:10 am
> Dammit, where’s St. Patrick when you need him?
He’s busy blessing the abortuaries.
@Doc June 7, 2018 at 12:15 pm
> I guess it’s not true when they say “A little head never hurt anyone!”
It’s caused me a wealth of pain everytime I’ve said it.
If he’d left the snake alone it wouldn’t have harmed him. The snake was probably not a permanent resident of his yard & was just passing through. Such fear & hatred of common snakes is silly. As long as they’re not in my house i abide by the live n let live policy. And they like to eat mice too, so I don’t mind them doing a little hunting in my yard at night.
McCain will sit bolt upright at his wake and give the Caesar thumbs down, I am sure of it.