This is a big one for around here. The smaller ones can be almost invisible in leaves and ground clutter.
Posted on 07/05/2011 7:49:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A tourist from Texas was bitten by a rattlesnake in Kissimmee, WFTV learned on Monday. Officers said the man was bitten at the Windsor Hills Resort.
Wayne Wilburn was taken to Florida Hospital Celebration and is in the intensive care unit. Officials said Wilburn will spend at least three nights in the ICU before he is released.
Officials told WFTV that the type of rattlesnake that bit Wilburn is responsible for more bites in Florida than any other venomous snake. Wilburn, investigators said, was bitten on his thumb by a pygmy rattlesnake.
"It's hurting tremendously. He doesn't really know how to describe it," said Wilburn's wife, Marla Wilburn. Marla said they arrived at the Windsor Hills Resort near Disney World on Saturday afternoon. That same evening, the family of four went to the pool and they came across a pygmy rattlesnake.
WFTV researched and found that pygmy rattlesnakes are common in Central Florida, but are normally found near lakes or pond and not pools. And although the snake is only 1 to 2 feet long, officials said they are aggressive and dangerous.
Wilburn tried to kill the rattlesnake with a stick, but the snake bit his thumb.
"What was he doing trying to kill the snake?" WFTV reporter Tim Barber asked Marla. "Why didn't he leave it alone?"
"He has such a huge heart that he was in fear of the children," she replied. Doctors at Florida Hospital Celebration had anti-venom on hand and gave him three doses.
"He's got huge bags under his eyes. He is sweating," Marla said.
Marla said she is worried about her husband, and she is also trying to take care of her kids.
"They don't understand why their father is not with them on what is supposed to be a happy time," she said.
Wilburn is expected to make a full recovery, but doctors said they do not want him going back to Texas until Friday.
Pygmy rattlesnakes are small, but dangerous snakes. Wildlife officials said the snakes are found throughout Florida, most commonly near small waterways.
While it is a rattlesnake, it sounds like a small buzzing insect. Its venom is not considered life-threatening, but can cause a person to lose a finger or toe.
Yeah, what kind of moron would kill a rattlesnake that was hanging around a pool where children were swimming?
Trying to kill the snake is fine but how could the guy have been bitten on the thumb? Was he using a twig?
“What was he doing trying to kill the snake?” WFTV reporter Tim Barber asked Marla. “Why didn’t he leave it alone?”
She should have kicked the reporter in the balls at that point.
LLS
Not to kick a man when he’s down, but if the snake could get to his thumb, it wasn’t a big enough stick. [I once caught a coral snake and took it to the Jacksonville Zoo (where the keepers wanted it, but refused to accept it unless I got it into their container) so I’m not just piling on.]
Doc!
Da snake! He’a Kissimmee!
I killed a water moccasin in my campsite last weekend. I wasn’t doin’ nuthin’ and the little monster slithered right up next to my tent.
I smashed him with a large rock. About 10 times.
What kind of stick was he using, a chopstick?
Getting bite on the ankle is usually the snake's fault while getting bit on the hand is usually your own fault. Don't put your hand near snakes. They bite.
That's gotta hurt. I hate getting bit in my Kissimmee.
“She should have kicked the reporter in the balls at that point.”
Classic!
I am not afraid of snakes in general, but I despise rattlesnakes.
Only a simpleton would let one go if he could kill it. We have huge numbers of them here, and have organized rattlesnake roundups annually nearby (Sweetwater).
My grandmother hated them worse than I do. She killed her last at 96. (she lived to 98) She was working around her pine trees raking needles. She came in the house and asked me to come with her, when I went outside she showed me the dead snake she killed with her hoe. She had Alzheimers, but knew what to do with a rattlesnake. Good pioneer stock.
Typical CS liberal response. Hey, dipsh** reporter, he was trying to protect the children. Obviously this so called journalist has never lived in Rattlesnake country.
Lucky, given her Alzheimer’s, that she didn’t kill her hoe with the live rattlesnake.
lolz.
This is an ORLANDO station, and they "research" a story about local snakes? What, did they look up a wiki on their iPhone while typing away at a local Starbucks?
Didn't anyone at the station grow up in the area, to learn this as a kid?
This is an ORLANDO station, and they "research" a story about local snakes? What, did they look up a wiki on their iPhone while typing away at a local Starbucks?
Didn't anyone at the station grow up in the area, to learn this as a kid?
I’ve had several encounters with big rattlesnakes. Those guys were all quite loud and there was no doubt they were bonafide bada$$.
Quite different was my sole encounter with a Pygmy rattler. It was partially curled into a corner outside my Florida hotel room, at night. It was less than 8 inches long, and in the dim light wasn’t readily identifiable as poisonous. Just before reaching down to pick him up, I had second thoughts because he didn’t have a glossy sheen to his scales. I finally saw his little rattle in the dim light. The little bugger never rattled or coiled. But he had that wall to his back - he could have fanged me but good! He was long gone by the time I returned with a killing stick.
In other news, I haven’t picked up a wild snake since.
This is a big one for around here. The smaller ones can be almost invisible in leaves and ground clutter.
Floridians in Orlando? No way!
So will they re-name the town ‘Don’t Kissimmee?’
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