The pain is unbearable. He does not much feel like talking, but Darian Baehler knows he is lucky to have his left foot. A rattlesnake bit his leg not once, but twice. He has had two surgeries, so far, to relieve pressure from the swelling. He was moved from intensive care to intermediate care at University Medical Center Brackenridge Tuesday afternoon.
Darian’s father, Todd Baehler, said, "It’s just unbelievable. I could not believe a snake bite could do this much damage. He's going to be in the hospital another week or so. He's going to have physical therapy, he's going to have plastic surgery, he's going to have a lot of problems."
It happened Friday, when Baehler and a group of kids were headed home down a wooded path near Southwest Regional Park in Williamson County. His sister Nicole says it got dark all of the sudden. One of their friends unknowingly stepped over a rattlesnake. Soon they all knew.
"It was really loud," Nicole Baehler said. "Like, you know, like moraccas or whatever, that's what it sounded like.
Game warden Turk Jones says dusk and dark in the summer are prime time for snakes.
"They're gonna be out in the evening, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, the time those kids were walking through here," Jones said.
Six-year-old Carson Perreault was also in the group. "I wouldn't have survived it," Perrault said
Doctors agree, which strikes a chord with Todd Baehler.
"That was scary to me because people walk their dogs back there. People ride their bikes back there," Baehler said.
Doctors at UMC Brackenridge say they see 40-50 snake bites a year, mostly during the summer months. They say rattlesnake anti-venom runs about $2,000 a vial. Baehler had to have 33 vials. Doctors say that the anti-venom can mean the difference between keeping and losing a limb, and in some cases, life and death. That is why they say anyone who is the victim of a snake bite, no matter how minor, should seek emergency medical treatment.
