Poisonous snake bites man strolling by Orlando JW Marriott pool

A poisonous snake bit a 45-year-old man while he was strolling by an Orlando hotel pool.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that the man was bitten on his left ankle by a cottonmouth water moccasin at about 5 p.m. Monday at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes resort in south Orange County. The species is common in and around wetlands in the Southeast, the paper reports.

The man – Eric Geisman, 45, of Rhode Island – was in the intensive-care unit at a local hospital, the paper says. He was in stable condition as of Tuesday evening, but the Sentinel says that his family “was not certain about his prognosis.”

“He’s in a lot of pain. We’re not sure what to expect,” said his sister-in-law, Lynn Arruda of Orlando.

The man was bitten while he and his wife were on a walking path near the hotel’s pool and herb garden; he had stepped on the snake, the story says. His left leg became swollen, and about an hour later, he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital.

A fire crew later captured and killed the roughly 2 1/2-foot-long, snake and took it to the hospital, the story says. Geisman by mid-day Tuesday received two doses of anti-venom.

The JW Marriott hotel’s general manager, Jim Burns, was not immediately available for comment, the paper says.