CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — A landscaper is recovering after a poisonous copperhead snake bit him as he removed debris from a children's play area.
The 22-year-old landscaper was doing work when he spotted something that was about to ruin his day.
Mitch Hattersley described to Channel 2’s Tom Regan the copperhead that bit him on the finger.
He spotted the snake while clearing yard debris near a children's play area.
He grabbed the snake, and as he was putting it into a container in a landscape truck, the snake lashed out. %
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“Did the fang embed in your finger?” Regan asked.
“Actually, one fang did. It just barely snagged me,” Hattersley said.
“And what did you do about that poison in the bite?” Regan asked.
“I primarily sucked it out,” Hattersley said. “I don't know if that's an old wives' tale or not. It's kind of instinct. And then I cut off the blood flow to my finger, until the EMS arrived.”
Hattersley was taken to a hospital, where his hand began swelling up like a balloon.
He said the initial bite might have been a little worse than a bad bee sting, but the swelling was extremely painful, like a pounding hammer.
“You could feel every heartbeat,” Hattersley said. “A lot of pounding in your finger. (It) definitely hurts.”
Doctors monitored him for hours because the swelling didn't move up his arm, and decided against giving antivenin.
“There’s a lot of tissue damage,” Hattersley said. “Where it punctured my skin, (It) kind of eroded away the skin.”
Hattersley is already back at work.
He said that despite the nasty bite, he won't rule out handling another poisonous snake, only next time, he'll be a lot more cautious.
“I'm not scared of snakes,” Hattersley said. “They don't shy me off at all."
Copperhead bites, while rarely deadly, can cause a long-lasting injury.
Cox Media Group
