A copperhead bit a 6-year-old boy - but he likes snakes and knew exactly what to do
A family trip to the lake took a dangerous turn when 6-year-old Ford O'Neill was suddenly bitten by a copperhead snake near the water, WSB-TV reported.
But the Fulton County, Georgia, family told the station Ford was the calm one after he was bitten, because snakes are his favorite reptile. "I didn't know it, but the snake was inside the bush, and the snake popped out, and it bit me on the pinkie," the boy told WSB-TV.
"We asked him. We said, 'What do we do, Ford?' He said, 'I gotta keep my hand below my heart. I have to slow my heart rate.' He knew all the steps," Ford's father, Andrew O'Neill, told the station.
"I was thinking about his heart because he had heart surgery last year," Ford's mom, Jennifer O'Neill, told WXIA.
Ford told the station is felt as if someone were squeezing his arm as emergency workers arrived. "The ambulance took me to a helicopter and I got to ride on a helicopter," he told WXIA.
Ford's swelling kept going up, so doctors wound up giving him nine bags of anti-venom, more than three times the normal amount, according to WSB-TV.
"He's a soldier. I mean, he didn't shed a tear until they took the IV out. The whole time, he's been — God was with him for sure," Ford's father told WSB-TV.
And Ford's still pretty fond of reptiles, despite it all.
"I'm having a reptile birthday party, and alligators and snakes are coming," he told the station.
Now he's recovering just as people across the country are planning to spend a lot more time outdoors in the warming weather, WXIA reported.
It's the latest in a number of slithery snake encounters across the South in the last few weeks.
An Alabama man was paralyzed after he was bitten by a coral snake in early May and still might require "extensive" therapy to relearn basic skills, according to AL.com. A South Carolina man was also rushed to the hospital after an 18- to 36-inch long rattlesnake bit a kayaker three times. In the south Georgia city of Valdosta, residents were "terrorized" in May when a bundle of non-venomous snakes were released from a home, WALB reported.
Jason Clark, of Southeastern Reptile Rescue, told WXIA some tips for keeping clear of snakes like the copperhead that bit Ford.
"Run, cartwheel, flip, crawl," Clark told the station. "However you get away from the snake, it's not going to chase you." In other words, just leave the snake alone.
"If you're outside and you see a copperhead 10 feet away, you're safe," Clark told the station. "But as you start walking towards it, you increase your chances of getting bit."
This story was originally published May 31, 2018 at 9:56 AM with the headline "A copperhead bit a 6-year-old boy - but he likes snakes and knew exactly what to do."