Woman survives 3 bites by copperhead snake
Wildlife

Woman survives 3 bites by copperhead snake

May 14, 2021, 5:57 AM
Rose De La Cruz

Rose De La Cruz

Writer/Columnist

As the weather warms up across South Carolina, reports of people getting bitten by snakes is also on the rise, according to health officials.

Susan Conlin O’Neil was walking home from dinner to her Hilton Head Island condo Wednesday night when she took a step down on the sidewalk and felt a pang in her heel. The first bite felt like a bee sting.

“It was really no big deal, something got me,” she told her friends.

Then the second bite came and the third.

The Island Packet reported that O’Neil was bitten three times by a copperhead snake on the sidewalk outside her South Forest Beach home.

Copperhead snakes have an efficient venom delivery system, with long fangs mounted at the front of the jaw which swivel back to allow the snake to close its mouth.

The copperhead snake (Agkistrodon contortrix) is shorter than both the coral and the cottonmouth snake. It is the most often encountered snake in Eastern parts of the United States such as Alabama, Missouri and Arkansas.

They are responsible for the most venomous snake bites in the USA.

The amount of venom a single Copperhead snake can deliver is insufficient to kill an otherwise healthy adult human.

The second two bites were nothing like the first. “It felt like someone stuck an electric knife in my leg, like a volt of electricity,” she said, adding that “the pain went up my leg.”

O’Neil, who has lived on the island for 27 years, knew she had to get a photo of the culprit and get to the hospital.

But in the moments after the bites, all that went out the window.

“One of my biggest problems after the bite was panic: ‘What got me? What do I need to do? What is the immediate first aid? How do I know what kind of snake it was?’” she said. “I’m an RN who’s retired but I spent 20 years in the ER in Chicago. And I panicked.”

O’Neil’s friends got her to Hilton Head Hospital, where she was treated for the bite.

But the swelling overtook her left leg below the knee, and the symptoms were making her miserable.

“I was throwing up like crazy and sweating. Like, sweat hitting the floor dripping,” she said.

Nearly a week later, O’Neil is still unable to walk. She is home and holed up on the couch watching Stranger Things while the swelling subsides.

Her experience, while painful and scary, was not life threatening. O’Neil said she wants others to be prepared for how to handle snake bites and, if possible, avoid them altogether.

Snake bites on the rise?

As the weather warms up across South Carolina, peak snake bite season is arriving.

Thirty-eight snake species, including six venomous species, call the Lowcountry home. Copperheads are the main culprits for bites on Hilton Head.

“Hilton Head is crawling with copperheads. I would say almost 100 percent of the venomous bites we see are copperheads,” Dr. Robert Clodfelter, medical director of Hilton Head Hospital’s emergency room, told The Island Packet in 2018.

Copperheads like hanging out in brush on the sides of roads and pathways. Be careful between sunset and sunrise, he said, because the snakes are most active at night in the summertime.

O’Neil said she has seen a lot more snakes around her home in 2021, and South Carolina residents on social media have shared their encounters, too.

The Palmetto Poison Center, which tracks calls for snake bites, has received 42 calls so far this year, according to its director, Jill Michels.

That is on par with last year, as Michels said the center had 43 snake bites calls by this time in 2020. Throughout the last year, the center handled 245 snake bite cases.

Tags: #UnitedStates,#SouthCarolina, #snakebite


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