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Woman
Bitten ByRattlesnake
Don’t ever count on a snake to behave true to form. Mrs. L. J. Crews of Washington learned the hard way on Monday that rattlers don't always give a warning before they strike.
She and her husband were walking down by the river flats at Peyton Farm Estates early Labor Day evening. “All of a sudden, I realized that something had hit me. I didn't suspect at first that it was a snake. I thought I’d run into a stick,” she said.
Her husband turned around and saw the rattler, just beginning to coil for another strike. "He jumped back and started looking for something to kill it with but I told him to forget about the snake and get me to the house because I was already feeling the effects of the venom."
In just the five short minutes it took to reach their home, Mrs. Crews was on the verge of losing consciousness completely. “I was coming and going. After those first five minutes, I was mostly gone.” The Washington rescue squad carried her to a hospital around 8:30 p.m. where she was treated and released -shortly after midnight.
At home on Wednesday, "playing the invalid" with a swollen and discolored foot that still throbed whenever she tried to put weight on it, Mrs. Crews had plenty of time to reflect on the unreliability of a snake's warning rattle.
Hef nemesis was no baby. “He was big, let me tell you, two or three feet long and big around. He was a huge snake...We were walking in short grass and I just didn't see him. I wasn't looking. In fact, I probably stepped on him.” she recalled.
And he never rattled, not even a tiny shake. Mrs. Crews said that hospital personnel told her that, at this time of year, rattlers are shedding their skins and are blind.
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