Virginia Woman Recovering from Copperhead Bite at Restaurant

[Zorro]

Source: NBC4 Washington

A Virginia woman is recovering after being bitten by a copperhead snake during a restaurant visit.

Rachel Myrick told The Free Lance-Star she was at a LongHorn Steakhouse in Spotsylvania County earlier this month when she felt a sharp pain in her left foot.

She reached down and realized she'd been bitten several times by a roughly 8-inch-long copperhead that had gotten inside the restaurant's foyer.

Myrick said the pain was excruciating. She was taken to a hospital for treatment, where she was given antivenin.

Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Virginia-Woman-Recovering-from-Copperhead-Bite-at-Restaurant-447398213.html

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I'm glad to read the restaurant is taking actions to prevent this from happening again.

[PoliticAverse]

1. This is why you sould always order your meal "well done". n/t

[hlthe2b]

2. Ok... I have to admit that I

(Not at the woman's pain, naturally, but the clever retort)

[BigmanPigman]

3. I hope the Donald goes there and orders an overcooked steak with ketchup

before his venom dessert. Someone please send him detailed directions on what the best route is to get there in time for the early bird special.

[Iggo]

4. Oh my god. Get that woman to a hospital!

(Yeah, I know, I know. Snakebites ain't no joke. It's just an awkwardly written headline.)

[PoliticAverse]

5. Have you ever eaten hospital food? She better off at the restaurant. n/t

[Man_Bear_Pig]

15. I think hospital cafeterias have gotten pretty good.

Some of their meals aren't great, but they have some good selections in there.

[Ilsa]

20. I agree, and they are typically

Reasonably healthy, with no added salt, lower calories, etc. Hospital food has gotten much better with more choices.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

16. When I get snakebit, please take me next door to the bar.

Bars have better medicine than most restaurants

[GentryDixon]

6. A sidenote to this story...

My ggg grandfather was a Myrick from North Carolina.

[DonaldsRump]

7. She won this in a contest as first prize.

Second prize was meeting Donald Trump in the White House since no one else wants to.

[Honeycombe8]

8. Wow. How unusual. I wouldn't blame the restaurant, though.

A small snake like that can get it anywhere. Even thru the front door when it opens.

[xor]

18. Agreed. This is just an unfortunate event that I think falls under "sh*t happens"

Unless there is something really obviously wrong that allowed the snake to come inside. I wonder what exactly they can do to prevent it from ever happening again (even though that seems unlikely)

[Honeycombe8]

22. You know, city dwellers sometimes think that they can keep the world ...

can keep the world out of their area, whether it's their yard, their restaurant, their road, their whatever.

There are critters in the world everywhere. They go places. We go places. We are bound to meet up. It's impossible to keep the world away. And who would want to?

I ran across a snake in my back yard recently. About 3 ft long. Quite a shocker. I didn't try to kill it. I just watched it for a while, and watched it leave my yard. No problem. Sh*t happens.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

23. The snake charmer the restaurant hired for ambiance music may have increased their liability

[DemoTex]

9. An 8" long copperhead sounds like a juvenile .. not good.

Juvenile copperheads in NC usually have yellow tails. And they don't meter their venom. Not good.

I have lots of copperheads on my mountain property. Sneaky little bastards. Live in your woodpile, and don't warn you like a decent, law-abiding rattlesnake!

[ProudLib72]

12. I was always told the same thing about young snakes

Heard stories about young snakes injecting all their venom at once. Yeah, give me a three foot long rattler any day. I won't get as much venom, and there is a chance of a dry bite.

BTW: the closest I came to being bitten was outside of Las Vegas. My dad and I were on a hike. Coming down, I stepped over a small bush, and my dad let out a cry. It seems there was a small rattler hiding out in the bush I stepped over. I was inches away, and that rattler did NOT have the decency to rattle!

[Orrex]

10. Red next to black is a friend of jack

Red next to yellow, chow down!

[videohead5]

11. It reminded me of this song

For those of you that don't know Steve Earl is very progressive.

[lordsummerisle]

13. Call me skeptical

I'm having trouble with the notion that a poisonous (or not) snake would make its way into a restaurant, hang out, and then just decide to bite someone. Generally speaking snakes do what they can to avoid contact with people, although this one might have been waiting for the early bird special...

[forgotmylogin]

17. From my read, this happened in the restaurant's foyer.

I've been to a steakhouse like that where sometimes you have to stand a bit to wait for a table, and there's often room between the outer and inner doors (a "vestibule"?) where people gather (often it's sizable with free newspaper racks, gumball machines, and a menu) if it's crowded inside and raining or hot outside.

Even if "foyer" means right before the check-in stand, the snake probably had only just made its way into the building.

If she was standing, she may have moved her foot close to the snake without realizing, and it bit defensively.

[xor]

19. I imagined it being under a bench of something and she sat down, or maybe stepped in a corner

where it was hiding.

[forgotmylogin]

21. That makes sense.

Many casual restaurants do have benches in the foyer or vestibule for people waiting for tables.

[Bayard]

14. Snakes can get in the darnedest places

Used to get rattlesnakes on the farm in central CA, in the mountains. I always tried to relocate them to the backside of the property (pick them up with a rake, stuff them in a bucket with a lid). Only had to kill two. One kept insisting he was going to hang out with the little blind barn cat. The other one--HUGE--killed one of my mini-dachshunds. The next day, he got stuck in the yard fence after eating something big, like a pack rat. He couldn't go forward, and he couldn't back up because of the big lump. The big dogs started going nuts. My horse vet happened to be there. He held him down with a board, and my ex chopped him with an ax. After that, I started getting yearly anti-venom shots for the dogs.

I would also get little non-poisonous types that would slither under the screened porch door (space of no more than half inch), where the cats would quickly dispatch them.

Have heard there are copperheads in this area, around our farm back in KY. Have seen very few snakes here at all though.