Sophia Price, with Cook Children's Trauma and Injury Prevention says Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth reported its first snakebites of the season in late April and early May, including its first copperhead bite in May. In 2024, the Cook Children's Health Care System treated 30 snakebites, with the first reported in March.

Jay Pearson, P.A., a physician assistant with Cook Children’s Trauma Services, offers crucial advice for parents on keeping children safe from snakebites. Price recommends avoiding walking in tall grass and wearing protective boots. She also warns that at night, snakes may rest on warm surfaces like driveways or sidewalks. Price emphasizes that individuals should never attempt to touch or handle a snake, even if it appears dead.

North Texas is home to three species of pit vipers:

• Copperheads
• Cottonmouths (also known as water moccasins)
• Rattlesnakes

A snakebite can cause localized pain and swelling that may spread as venom progresses. Other symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, and an increased heart rate. In severe cases, patients may experience difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, or bleeding disorders.

If a snake bites a child, seek immediate medical attention at the closest emergency department.

What to do if bitten by a snake:

• Do not try to capture, photograph, or kill the snake.
• Do not apply ice, tourniquets, or attempt to suck out venom.
• Immobilize the affected limb and keep it at heart level if possible.

How snakebites are treated at Cook Children's:

Once at the hospital, patients with moderate to severe envenomation may receive antivenom, which is readily available at Cook Children’s Medical Center.

Patients are closely monitored for symptom progression and may require hospital admission for observation and supportive care. 

For most of us, a snake bite of any type would send us directly into a panic. However, when Ray was bitten while working in his lawn, he was hesitant to go to the doctor. He didn’t want to overreact. He wasn’t even sure he’d been bitten because of the heavy gloves he wore outside.

“Initially I knew it wasn’t good, the numbness and tingling. I told my wife that I thought I got bit by a snake but I never saw it because I was trimming the shrubs,” Ray said. “I actually called the Emergency Department at Cook Children’s and talked to one of the physicians I work with, and he advised that I go into my local ER to get some labs.”

While Ray was on the phone with the doctor, his wife went to the front yard where he was bit, found the snake and killed it. Later, poison control confirmed the snake hiding in their shrubs was, in fact, a venomous copperhead.

Ray went to Texas Health Resources for testing and bloodwork, and eventually started Crofab (an anti-venom) in the following hours. He spent the next four days in the hospital, receiving additional doses of antivenom while waiting to regain use of his left hand.

Providers aren’t immune to the fear of the unknown that patients often experience. It was in that same unease that he began to sympathize with his own patients.

“Going from a caregiver and being placed into the role of a patient is something I’m going to take away from this,” Ray said. ”I was really anxious in the waiting room because of the swelling, I even knew the science behind it all, but it was still a source of anxiety for me so for children to be a patient, it’s even harder on them.”

Now fully recovered, Ray’s experience has given him a deeper level of empathy for his patients and has made him a better provider for children with anxiety.

“Seeing the compassion of the other physicians and the nurses is something that is going to make me a better provider going forward,” Ray said. “This experience is going to make me more compassionate. I think whenever a provider is forced into the role of a patient it can create more empathy for their future patients.”

Related Topic:

• After the Bite: When and Why Antivenom is Used at Cook Children's
• 1 Year Old Bitten By Rattlesnake Recovering At Cook Children's
• Patients Bitten By Snakes
• What Are The 4 Venomous Snakes Found in Texas?