In a Walmart Garden Center, an outdoor area filled with plants, it’s not surprising that you might encounter some critters. Maybe a large bug, a moth, a frog, or even a grass snake. While shopping for mulch for his medical marijuana plants on Friday morning, a 47-year-old Washington state man reached down to pick up what he thought was a stick, and ended up rushed to the emergency room with a rattlesnake bite.
The story has been picked up by “wacky news” wires worldwide by now, but local paper the Lewiston Tribune had it first. Here’s what went down: the man says that while browsing the mulch aisle, he reached down to pick up something that looked like a stick. The snake bit him on the right hand, and a fellow customer–a stranger and arguably the hero of this story–drove him to the hospital after he stomped the snake to death, then fell to the ground in pain.
“I did a tap dance on that snake,” he told KIRO radio. “I killed it. I just stomped and stomped on it until that snake quit moving.”
The first medical facility they visited, an urgent care center, wasn’t equipped to treat snake bites and sent him on to the hospital. Since there wasn’t any swelling, the hospital sent him home. After his right hand swelled to the size of a grapefruit, he returned to the hospital for treatment with anti-venom. He fears permanent damage to his hand.
Walmart apologized and issued a statement:
“At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident. We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity.”
Rattlesnake bite victim could be released from hospital tonight [Lewiston Tribune]
Man bitten by rattlesnake at Wal-Mart says he’s never been more scared [KIRO] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
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“While shopping for mulch for his medical marijuana plants “
He was going to go to the hospital, but had a major case of the munchies and had to stop at 7/11 first
Maybe if he wasn’t stoned he would have recognized it as a snake.
Let that be a lesson… never try to pick up a stick, or anything else, from the ground at wal-mart… you might die.
Well his number one mistake was shopping at Walmart in the first place!
It could have been worse……he could have actually bought something at Walmart!
Thankfully, that snake realized what he was about to do and stopped him! It was almost a tragedy.
That snake is a hero and should be memorialized! Maybe by pouring a 40 on the curb?
That is why you stick to making meth. No need for all that mulch when your cooking up meth
Walter White agrees.
I can’t get past the hospital sending him home after a freaking rattle snake bite. I don’t give a shit if there is no swelling, you treat the guy for a rattle snake bite.
No kidding! What the hell were they thinking?
He failed the wallet biopsy. (Not the right or no insurance, take 2 aspirin and call us in the morning.)
He had insurance. They turned him away out of incompetence. Also, a competent ER would have treated him regardless of insurance. This incident doesn’t fit your agenda.
No. It fits his agenda.
The guy was at death’s door. It just wasn’t obvious enough. You’ve got to look like you’re ready to die before an ER is required by law to treat you. That’s one of the problems with trying to treat the ER as a free medical clinic.
This kind of shenangian is why medical malpractice is not optional. Without it, crass corporations will make this kind of situation the norm rather than the exception.
“The guy was at death’s door. It just wasn’t obvious enough. You’ve got to look like you’re ready to die…”
Yea, we shouldn’t let things like facts and patient presentation of symptoms get in the way of our agenda. You can argue that they failed to take the appropriate and established procedural steps in handling such a case… but that criticism would involve actually being a doctor and actually discussing relevant medical facts. It would distinctly not involve whining about perceived monetary influences. You need the former before you can even approach the latter.
(Note: I’m not claiming that monetary influences have no effect on care. Obviously your sore wrist is going to get different attention than Albert Pujol’s sore wrist… because he would care to pay a lot more for a lot more detailed look. I’m simply claiming that you first need to establish error… then you need to establish that this error was due specifically to insurance-related concerns (and then you need to establish that it is widespread and far enough in the dangerous category… because that seems to be the point DadCooks is making). Scooby challenged only the insurance-specific portion, though I think all three points are lacking.)
I was just thinking this same thing…. I totally think that the guy should sue the hospital for negligence. I just can’t believe that he got bit by a rattlesnake and was SENT HOME.
+1. Srsly. If I got bit by a rattlesnake, there is no way I would allow a hospital to discharge me. I would sit right there in the waiting room for the next 15 hours waiting for symptoms before going home.
I’d say the hospital botched this one. However they did have reason for sending the man home. Each individual’s reaction to venom is different and some might take longer to react than others. Also, rattlesnakes often dry-bite where they don’t even inject any venom into you. The hospital most likely felt that this gentleman suffered a dry bite. Given the expense and limited supply of antivenin it wouldn’t surprise me that they’d send him home.
I don’t think they should have sent him home, though. It might have been better to set him in the lobby or somewhere and watch him for an hour or so. That would be a better way to cover their asses.
The real story is the hospital sending him home. What the hell?
Maybe he doesn’t have insurance? Which the hospital told him “Sucks to be you then!”
At first when I read the beginning, I skipped over the mulch part and read it as, “While shopping for his medical marijuana plants…” I was shocked no one was commenting on the revelation that you can now apparently buy marijuana at Walmart until I read a little more carefully
That shocked me as much as the snake.
He was buying mulch for his pot plants, not buying marijuana plants. =P
I read both the linked articles; one thing neither of them mention is if he took the snake to the hospital with him. I’d call that a bit of crucial information, myself. If he showed up at the ER with a bite mark on his hand, no swelling and no snake, it isn’t hard to believe that they assumed it was a harmless bite.
That’s just what everyone needs…
…snakes in the car!
Snakes in a Wal*Mart
When did we collectively decide to start calling it “anti-venom” instead of “antivenin”?
To start, “antivenin” isn’t the right spelling.
Antivenin is the correct term and spelling.
I was wondering about that too, but I was echoing the term that Reuters used in their story. Turns out the WHO has been encouraging the use of “antivenom” instead. Firefox spellcheck doesn’t like it, but it also thinks “spellcheck” isn’t a word.
Oh, maybe a couple hundred years ago? Finally, after pedants resisted the tide for so long, in 1981 the World Health Organization standardized on “antivenom”.
If any pedants want to read the memo now, they can search for “antivenin” article on Wiki, and notice that it redirects to “antivenom”.
Cite:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivenom#Terminology
These comments will only be about marijuana.
Le Sigh.
Or antivenin.
A snake would be a step up from the greeters at my local Wally World.
Ha! That’ll teach him to show his receipt next time.
Me thinks this guy won’t have to be paying for his own mulch for the next 1000 or so years thanks to this happening on the property of the world’s largest retailer.
Add his lawsuit against the hospital for turning him away and this guy is set for life.
Says you. Wouldn’t surprise me if Walmart sues HIM for something.
How do you mistake a stick from a rattlesnake? I’ve never seen a stick that had a snakelike pattern in its bark. Plus, why would you even think to pick up a “stick” outside in a garden center? Are you cleaning up after the associates? Clearly it’s not for sale.
Common sense has left the building.
It probably went up in flames before he got there
Most sticks also don’t rattle or move on their own.
Why would anyone older than a 3 year old pick up random sticks off the floor?
Where did this happen? Lots of city names but no state. Maine? DC? Iowa? Florida?
It’s easy to miss, but it’s there in the third sentence, second phrase, fifth word.
The victim is from Washington State. The report is in an Idaho newspaper. Where’s the Walmart?
Clarkston, WA just over the river from Lewiston,ID (home of the Lewiston Tribune).
Sounds like Wal*Mart’s replacement plan for their door greeters is working perfectly.
Sure, you don’t have to show your receipt, but I hope you like snake bites.
He stomped the snake to death, THEN fell down in pain. That’s hardcore.
Need more REAL MEN like that in the world! Yea!
I am happy Best Buy didn’t hire Mr Rattlesnake as receipt-checker.
/s
This is my ‘friendly neighborhood Walmart’ mentioned in the story. Here in Clarkston, we get rattlesnakes everywhere and no one who lives in the area would be stupid enough to pick one up, heck my 6year old is smarter than that.
Darwinism at its finest.
please note medical marijuana plants that is why he mistook a snake for a stick snakes on a plane snakes a walmart whats next snakes in alaska which is to cold for snakes http://consumerist.com/2010/01/10-of-the-strangest-unclaimed-baggage-items-ever-found.html