Video: Decapitated Rattlesnake Bites Firefighter Sending Him to Hospital
OutdoorHub Reporters 11.13.16
A Spring Hill, Tennessee, firefighter found out that headless rattlesnakes can still be dangerous.
Kyle Watson was on a hiking trip with his wife and kids, when they came across a juvenile rattlesnake. There were a number of people on the trail at the time, so Kyle did what he thought was the most logical thing to do.
“I decided to cut the head off the snake with a kayak paddle,” Watson told Q13 Fox reporters.
After decapitating the snake, he wanted to show his children the head so they would know what to avoid if they ever came across one. He picked up the snake with his hand, and what happened next is terrifying.
“The head turned and struck me on the finger. It latched on and I slung it off,” Watson said.
It wasn’t long before Kyle started feeling the effects of the snake’s venom.
“It took about 10 seconds for the burning sensation to start shooting through my arm. Within 60 seconds, I was unconscious. I fell on the trail and hit the back of my head on a rock. I was knocked out. In a remote area, bleeding from my head and bitten by a snake,” Watson said.
He had to be evacuated by helicopter to the Vanderbilt Medical Center, where he promptly received an IV drip of anti-venom serum.
