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kill it.
Lee stayed in the hospital for four days initially and then went home. It was then that problems with his breathing, his heart and the strength in his arms began. The antivenin he had been given for the snake bite had caused serum sickness, which weakened the nerves to his heart, lungs and arms.
Lee was in intensive care for three weeks recovering from the serum sickness, and was given a drug to control internal inflammation. He returned home for a week before he had to be taken back to the hospital because the anti-inflammation drug had caused him to have bleeding ulcers, and he remained in the hospital for 10 days.
“I still haven’t fully recovered since I’m still short of breath, and the muscles in my chest and arms have been affected,” Lee said. “My left arm is still kind of numb or tingly.” Lee said that he does not take any special precautions against snakes except to wear boots and gloves, but he does carry a loaded pistol.
Both he and Chris have decided that they will go to a poison control center like the one in Charlottesville if they are ever bitten again. Chris was bitten in 1972 on the index finger of his right hand. He had found a copperhead while helping to gather rocks to build a chimney for his parents’ house and had drained some of its venom before trying to place it in a container so that he could release it in another area.
The snake bit him with only one fang, but he said that his arm was swollen up to his elbow. Tests at the hospital indicated that Chris was allergic to the antivenin, so he stayed in the hospital for six days while cold and hot packs were applied to the wound.
“The worst trouble I had was afterwards because the wound never really healed,” Chris said. “Finally, I had to have a skin graft, and now my finger is permanently crooked at the end.” Even though seven copperheads were killed last year on Lee’s farm and three have been killed this year, Chris said that he does not feel particularly threatened by snakes. “I try to be careful and be aware of where I’m putting my hands and feet,” Chris said.
“Snakes will usually
try to get out of your
way if they know you're
there."
Jim Bankston
The best Way for a person to avoid being bitten by a snake is to look before stepping, sitting or reaching in certain areas, said Rappahannock’s Game Warden Jim Bankston. “Snakes will be
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