Rough hid nasty surprise for golfer

[Times photo: Stefanie Boyar] Chris Thomas on Tuesday holds some of the stuffed snakes given to him as gag gifts by family and friends after he was bitten by a rattlesnake at Heritage Isles Golf Course Sunday.

By AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 25, 2001

TAMPA -- From the start, Chris Thomas was having a lousy game. He just didn't figure golf would almost kill him.

As the husband, and father of three, neared the 16th hole Sunday at Heritage Isles Golf Course in the New Tampa area of Hillsborough County, Thomas tried to shrug off his irritation.

He was low on golf balls. His worn golf gloves were bugging him, and he had forgotten his bank card. Not to mention, his score was pushing 100.

Thomas, a sales representative who lives near the course, hit his tee shot. It went into the water. He re-teed, and the ball landed 6 inches into the rough.

As he reached for it, Thomas felt a sudden stinging sensation from behind.

"He hit me twice on my calf," he recalled Tuesday from his room at Tampa General Hospital. "I jumped back and realized it was a rattlesnake, lying there on the grass. I jumped again and he slithered back into the woods."

Thomas yelled to his golfing partner, Steve Butler, who drove their cart back to the clubhouse.

Two Tampa General Hospital nurses golfing nearby administered the club's snakebite kit.

He was treated by paramedics and flown to Tampa General Hospital, where he was given antivenin to counteract the poison, which was causing his body to go numb. The numbness was coupled with an uncontrollable twitching in his fingers, lips and right calf, where the snake had hit.

"It was a very bizarre feeling," Thomas said.

That night he was treated with 30 vials of antivenin for the two bites hospital officials guessed came from an Eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

"He was lucky," said Vincent Speranza, a pharmacist and managing director of the Florida Poison Information Center at Tampa General.

While only about one-fourth of all poisonous snakes actually release venom with their bite, when they do, it can be quite serious, Speranza said.

"If it was in fact an Eastern diamondback, it was very generous," he noted -- it did not release all of its venom, known to be the most toxic of Florida's rattlesnakes.

Rattlesnake venom attacks blood cells, he said, and diminishes clotting. Tests on Thomas showed his blood count was beginning to decline until he was given the antivenin.

Speranza said April begins the snakebite season, which ends in October. While snakebites are more sensational, he said, "More people die every year from wasp and bee stings or ant bites."

Last year, the center logged 85 poisonous snakebites from the 21 counties it serves in central and southwest Florida. Of those, 61 came from rattlesnakes.

"The problem with rattlesnakes," he said, "is that some people lost fingers or toes."

Thomas, who lives in the Richmond Place subdivision, was scheduled to be released from the hospital Tuesday.

While this was his first encounter with a snake in the wild, he said the experience has not soured him on reptiles in general.

"It was not the snake's fault," Thomas said. "The golf course was built on a habitat."

While his leg is still sore, and he cannot yet walk, he already has golf plans.

"Not this weekend, but the weekend after next," he said.

- Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386.

What if you see a snake?

HOW TO TELL IF A SNAKE IS POISONOUS

• Look for a large, triangular head. If a snake is non-poisonous, it will be shaped like a worm, with the head the same width as the body.
• Look for eyes shaped like a cat's.
• Look for the distinctive colorings of poisonous snakes. The coral snake, the most deadly in Florida, is marked with colorful bands of red, yellow and black. It is not to be mistaken with the harmless scarlet kingsnake, and there is a jingle to learn the difference: "Red and black, friend of Jack. Red and yellow, kill a fellow." While rattlesnakes have the distinctive noisemaker at the end of their tails, not all of them use it every time. The most common rattler in the Tampa area, the Eastern diamondback, has a black band that runs through its eyes, like a raccoon mask.

IF YOU ENCOUNTER A POISONOUS SNAKE

• Back away. Don't touch, handle or tease the snake. Most people get bitten by chasing them or grabbing them.
• Stay away from dead snakes, as well. Even a dead snake will have the reflex to strike.
• Don't assume that a very small poisonous snake will not hurt you. Baby poisonous snakes can actually be more harmful than adults because they have not learned to regulate the amount of venom they inject with a bite, and will release it all.

IF YOU ARE BITTEN BY A POISONOUS SNAKE

• Call your local hospital or poison control center to determine if the snake was, indeed, poisonous. Some questions for a snake bite victim include, "Did the bite leave puncture wounds? Is there immediate pain? Swelling? Is there bleeding?" If the answer to any of those questions is "yes," head immediately to the nearest hospital.
• Do not try to use a snake kit. Cutting the skin can do more harm than good to the wound, and possibly begin an infection. Since a snake's fangs are long and curved, trying to use suction to get out the venom is not likely to make a difference.
• Cleanse the wound.
• Splint the extremity, if possible, and elevate it. Don't use constricting bands; cutting off blood flow is harmful.

-- Source: Vincent Speranza of the Florida Poison Information Center in Tampa.

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