Rattlesnake bites 7-year-old girl, and it took 30 hours to figure it out, AZ family says
A 7-year-old was bit by a rattlesnake in Arizona, but it didn’t leave a mark and took hospitals more than a day to figure out what was wrong, the girl’s family told news outlets.
After more than a week recovering in a hospital, it appears the girl will be all right — but for a few terrifying days, her family wasn’t sure, KPHO reported.
It happened when the family was jogging together along a canal in Gilbert Regional Park on Monday, Sept. 16, the station reported. Seven-year-old Allie Brasfield fell down, and her family thought she might have sprained her ankle.
At home, the second grader’s leg started swelling, and she started feeling sick, the news outlet reported. But when they took her to one emergency room and then another, doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
“The first one said it was a sprained ankle and sent us home,” Amber Brasfield told KPHO. “The second one didn’t know what it was. They were great and did blood work and (X-ray) imaging trying to figure it out, but they didn’t know either.”
At home, Allie started throwing up, and the bruise on her ankle darkened and started to crawl up her leg, 12News reported.
“It was very shocking,” her mother told the station. “It was just something abnormal, like, you don’t usually start throwing up from a sprained ankle.”
They took her to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and Amber Brasfield’s husband Keith asked if it could be from a rattlesnake bite, 12News reported. Doctors ran a toxicology report and found rattlesnake venom in her blood — more than a day after she’d been bitten.
“From the time she was bit until her first dose of antivenom was 30 hours,” Amber Brasfield told Fox10. “She had to have emergency surgery, emergency fasciotomy, blood transfusions and she’s had 40 vials of antivenom.”
An online fundraiser to help with her medical bills says the vials can cost between $1,000 and $14,000 per vial, and insurance doesn’t always cover it. She also had to have “two surgeries to save her leg,” the fundraiser states.
A Sept. 29 update said Allie was ready for her third surgery Monday, Sept. 30, and she would hopefully be home recovering Tuesday, Oct. 1. A photo shows her smiling in a wheelchair with her left leg wrapped up and a Jack-O-Lantern blanket draped over her lap.
“A week ago we didn’t even know if she was gonna stay alive,” Amber Brasfield told Fox10. “We went to three ERs in 24 hours. She has a long road with physical therapy and her next surgery on Monday, but she’s making good progress.”
Rattlesnakes are active from March through October in warm desert areas, according to the Arizona Game & Fish Department website.
Venomous snakes bite more than 7,000 people each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“About 5 of those people die,” the CDC said. “The number of deaths would be much higher if people did not seek medical care.”
Rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths and coral snakes are all venomous snakes that live in the U.S.
If you see a snake, back away slowly and don’t touch it. Here’s what the CDC says you should do if a snake bites you:
Try to remember the color and shape of the snake. It could help with treating the bite.
Stay calm and still to slow down the spread of venom.
Seek medical care as soon as possible.
Apply first aid if you can’t get to the hospital quickly.
Wash the wound with warm, soapy water.
Cover the bite with a clean cloth or dressing.
Don’t slash the wound with a knife or try to suck out venom.
Don’t apply ice to the wound.
