A man in California needed every vial of antivenom a hospital had after he was bitten by a rattlesnake. Luckily, after being transferred to another facility, where he received more than a dozen more, he survived.
Chris Howarth, who lives with his family in Idaho, was visiting his parents in Oroville in May when he said he thought he had stepped on something sharp, but then noticed it was a rattlesnake, he told SF Gate.
He said it felt like getting blood drawn, KRON reported.
He told his wife, who at first thought he was joking but when she and their kids saw his leg, she knew she was wrong.
They were about 15 minutes from the hospital, but as she drove him there, he started showing signs of a reaction: a numb tongue, swollen lymph node and difficulty breathing.
He received the antivenom, but it wasn’t enough as the fang punctures went deep into his skin, so the snake’s venom went into his bloodstream, Jenny Howarth told the newspaper.
Chris Howarth said it was a roller coaster four days as he would receive antivenom, the symptoms would subside, only to come back.
On day three, despite all of the treatment, he had developed a dangerous blood-clotting condition called disseminated intravascular coagulation, so on top of the antivenom, he needed platelets as well.
Disseminated intravascular coagulation, according to the Cleveland Clinic, can cause organ damage and uncontrollable bleeding. It is life-threatening if you don’t receive treatment.
Three days later, the hospital had run out of antivenom after using 36 doses.
Chris Howarth was transferred that day to Stanford Hospital, where he received a different type of antivenom that helped his symptoms diminish. He needed an additional 18 doses at Stanford.
Typically, people only need a few doses, California Poison Control System’s Fresno-Madera division medical director, Rais Vohra, told SF Gate.
Vohra said that needing 54 vials total is rare, but said sometimes antivenom isn’t enough to counteract a bite.
“It just sounds like a really unfortunate case,” Vohra said.
Chris Howarth was released from the hospital and returned home in June, but is unable to work because he is still experiencing symptoms. He said he’s about 80% recovered, according to KRON.
“My leg is still kind of sore and tender, my ankle still swells, I barely got able to tie a shoe just a few days ago and also still having lingering effects of fatigue,” he told the news station.