Mon, Nov. 19, 2007
A 73-year-old man was bitten by a snake Sunday evening in the Florida Everglades, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said.
Emergency personnel responded to Everglades National Park's Flamingo Marina around 7:30 p.m., according to Lt. Eddy Ballester.
The man was airlifted to Baptist Hospital.
Fire Rescue's antivenin unit was deployed to treat the man. Doctors determined the man was bitten on the foot by a pygmy rattlesnake.
Pygmy rattlers are small, hence their name. They live near marshes and swamps and on cooler days tend to slither toward concrete surfaces, which Ballester said is where the man most likely encountered the snake.
One of Florida's venomous snakes, the pygmy rattlesnake's bites are known to be painful but not always lethal.
As of late Sunday, the man was still in pain, with some numbness in his foot, authorities said. The antivenin unit responds to nearly 100 snake bites each year, Ballester said.
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A 73-year-old man was bitten by a snake Sunday evening in the Florida Everglades, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said.
Emergency personnel responded to Everglades National Park's Flamingo Marina around 7:30 p.m., according to Lt. Eddy Ballester.
The man was airlifted to Baptist Hospital.
Fire Rescue's antivenin unit was deployed to treat the man. Doctors determined the man was bitten on the foot by a pygmy rattlesnake.
Pygmy rattlers are small, hence their name. They live near marshes and swamps and on cooler days tend to slither toward concrete surfaces, which Ballester said is where the man most likely encountered the snake.
One of Florida's venomous snakes, the pygmy rattlesnake's bites are known to be painful but not always lethal.
As of late Sunday, the man was still in pain, with some numbness in his foot, authorities said. The antivenin unit responds to nearly 100 snake bites each year, Ballester said.
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