A California man was bitten by a rattlesnake after he picked it up to try and take a selfie with it, reports CBS Los Angeles.
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His mother, Deborah, told CBS that the skin on Gomez’s hand “is already rotting away”, and that he might lose it. His mother also has decided to share Gomez’s injury with reporters to teach her son a lesson.
After Gomez was bit, his hand swelled up and his body started to tingle.
Alex Gomez, 36, from Lake Elisinore, found the snake on his family’s ranch while he was collecting rubbish. “It was rattling, it was pretty mad, yeah”, Gomez’s nephew, Ronnie, told the station. His neighbor called 911 and he was transported to an area hospital.
While Gomez is being treated with anti-venom, his mother says he may lose his hand.
In California alone about 800 people a year are bitten by the snakes, with April to October being the most risky time.
“It could have bit his neck, and that would have been it”, she said. So the medics marked the spot of the bite, outlining the swelling on his hand so that doctors could better tell how the wound was reacting to the snake bite, Newman said.
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Last month, a San Diego man racked up a 3,000 hospital bill after attempting to pick up a snake from a bush to get a photograph. I’m going to teach him a real good lesson when he gets home.
