Man fighting for life after bite from decapitated rattle snake

Most people are aware that snakes are deadly, but did you know they can still bite you even when they’re decapitated?

For Texan man Jeremy Sutcliffe, it’s a lesson that nearly claimed his life. Along with his wife Jennifer, Jeremy was working in the family backyard when they discovered a four-foot rattle snake lurking around the home.

Trying to protect himself and his wife, Jeremy decapitated the snake with a shovel. He’d thought he’d done the right thing but ended up getting bitten by the severed head when he tried to dispose of it, KIITV South Texas reported. The venom from the snake’s head quickly made its way into Jeremy’s system.

According to the report, Jeremy immediately started having seizures, went blind and his internal organs began bleeding. Frantic, Jennifer called an ambulance, which tried to stabilise his condition. Doctors initially feared he wouldn’t make it because of the amount of venom in his system. Jeremy was given 24 doses of antivenom, while the standard amount is between two to four doses.

While Jeremy remains in a stable condition in hospital, his kidney function still isn’t great. In shocking footage, his hand appeared black, bloody and swollen. Jennifer said the case was made worse because the snake’s head had no body.

“Which in that case since there is no body, it released all its venom into him at that point, so he had a lot of venom,” she said in an interview.

Meanwhile, Trauma surgeon Michael told reporters that Jennifer did the right thing in calling for help as soon as possible.

“There’s about 6,000 to 8,000 snake bites per year in the country [United States of America] and 10 or 12 people die,” Halpert said.

He also encouraged people never to suck out the venom as characters in TV shows and movies often do.

“No, you don’t want to do any of that,” he explained. “You just want to keep the victim calm, keep the bitten area above the level of the heart slightly, and get the patient to the nearest emergency room.”

It’s not the first time a snake has made headlines in recent times. Last month, a selfless grandfather was praised as a hero after saving his granddaughter from an eastern brown snake bite.

Read more: ‘Hero’ grandad takes brown snake bite for toddler granddaughter

The Australian man from the Queensland town of Bundaberg was raking leaves in his yard with his toddler granddaughter when he spotted the snake. As he tried to rescue his grandchild, the snake ended up attacking him.

What do you think? Have you ever seen a snake in the wild before? Have you ever been bitten?