A three-year-old California girl is recovering after being bitten by a rattlesnake hiding under an Amazon package left in her yard.
Manuel Barajas recalled the terrifying moment when his little girl, Addy, was bitten by the venomous snake at their home in Santa Clarita, near Los Angeles.
He said a gift for Addy, delivered by Amazon, was dropped over their gate into their yard, and, in the excitement, his daughter ran to pick up the package, according to a GoFundMe fundraising page for the family.
“Tragically, a southern Pacific rattlesnake was hiding under the brown padded envelope and bit Addy’s left hand,” Barajas said.
Addy’s mother, Lynn, rushed to get help from the fire department, and the little girl was then taken to a local hospital, where she received a dose of antivenom.
The little girl then had to be transferred to another hospital and spent two nights in the pediatric ICU, where she received two more doses of antivenom.
“She’s doing great now. She's, I want to say, about 70 percent recovered,” Barajas told local outlet KTLA. “She’s still bruised on her left hand where she was bitten.
“Her spirits are high, her demeanor is great, but she keeps asking why she did she get bitten by a snake.”
Barajas was out of town for work when his daughter was bitten. He quickly flew home to be with his family and lost about a week of work.
The family has already received more than $5,000 on GoFundMe, which will be used to compensate for medical bills and the loss of income.
There’s been an uptick in rattlesnake bites in California this year, local outlets reported in May, citing state officials. At the time, there were at least 77 rattlesnake-related calls made to California’s Poison Control System, three of which were fatal.
Chris Howarth, a father of three from Idaho, was bitten by a rattlesnake in May while visiting family in California. He barely survived after receiving 54 doses of antivenom.
“I got bit twice, and one of the bites, where it was was kind of a shallow, but the other one got my vein,” Howarth told SFGATE in an article published earlier this month. “I went inside. My wife thought I was joking.”
A GoFundMe page was set up to help with Howarth’s medical expenses and the work he has missed, which has generated more than $21,000.
US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years
Trump says blue states will become ‘ghettos’ because the rich are fleeing high taxes
Scientists released three million mosquitoes into three towns. These were the results
RFK Jr says outbreak of ‘explosive diarrhea’ parasite ‘under control’
Trump waffles on punishing China after claiming massive election interference
Missouri prosecutor removed for using court as ‘her dating app’