A seven year old describes her traumatic experience of getting bit by one of the most poisonous snakes in the state.
You might say it’s amazing that Mia Walker is still here to tell her story. They say for that to happen, everything had to fall into place, from the actions of emergency responders to the doctors at the hospital.
For Mia, the incident began as she was walking in her front yard.
“I just stepped on something and I thought it was a piece of glass,” Mia says.
However, it wasn’t glass. It was a snake.
“It felt like a needle going into my foot,” Mia says. “I thought I was going to die,”
With her blood racing, Mia panicked and ran towards the house to find her dad. “I was very very dizzy, I just couldn’t make it,” Mia said.
Then, the venom took over. She collapsed on the back steps of her parents home. “It felt like a dream, that I couldn’t even wake up, my eyes wouldn’t open, it was so dark,” Mia says.
Her mother, Brandy, was on a church trip when she got a phone call from her husband.
“[He said] that Mia had gotten bitten by a poisonous snake said she was unconscious and waiting on EMS,” Brandy said. “Her muscles were breaking down like acid had been poured on them. And then to find out that this thing actually hit a blood vessel so it just dumped venom into her blood stream.”
Mia’s dad preformed CPR while they waited for a medivac helicopter to land in a nearby field. She was unconscious for two hours. ‘I didn’t hear Jesus or the angels calling me yet, it was just like asleep at night time,” Mia said.
“Any of the doctors and surgeons that we talked to…I mean they’re not taking any credit for it,” says Brandy. “We keep thanking them for keeping her here and they’re like we can’t take any credit for it this is a miracle.”
Mia is recovering and learning that while she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, her doctors or angels, were not. “Thank you for saving my life,” Mia says.
Doctors say that she was bitten by a Canebreak snake, also known as a Timber Rattlesnake. The doctors also told the Walkers that even a baby snake that poisonous has enough venom to kill an adult.
So what do you do if you are bitten by a venomous snake? First, ignore that old wives tale, and do not try to capture the snake to take it to the hospital or try to suck the venom out of the bite. Doing those things will either get you bitten again or make the bite worse. Scott Pfaff with Riverbank Zoo says if you’re bitten, drop everything and get to the hospital as fast as you can.
“Take your Boy Scout snake bit kit and throw it away, do not put a tourniquet on it that’s really tight,” Pfaff says. “Do not try to cut the wound or try to apply any kind of suction device just get to a hospital, if the bite is severe enough they will apply anti-venom therapy and that is the effective treatment against snake bite.”
Pfaff says that many venomous snakes will bite out of self defense and not use any venom simply to scare you away.