A California teenager is in critical condition after a rattlesnake bite during a bike ride last month. The incident occurred when 14-year-old Bailey Vanden Bossche was out mountain biking with her friend Zoey Bark on March 20 around 5:30 p.m. on the Wendy Trail in Newbury Park, as reported by the Ventura County Star.
Bailey lost her balance on an uneven path and fell into the tall brush, with her bike landing on her. Upon getting up, she accidentally stepped on the snake, according to her mother, Brooke Cushman.
Initially, Bailey and her friend assumed she had merely sustained a broken ankle, as only a single puncture wound was visible.
“I got up, and my ankle was bleeding, but I didn’t feel a bite,” Bailey explained to CBS Los Angeles.
However, symptoms soon escalated. Bailey described experiencing a tingling sensation in her face, loss of hearing, and an overall feeling of malaise.
But soon, she said, her ‘face started tingling and then my hearing went out, and I like couldn’t – my body just didn’t feel good.’
The girls were still a couple of miles from their home as her symptoms progressed, and they decided to call Bailey’s father who lived nearby.
‘It was scary because we were by ourselves and her phone was like, her dad couldn’t track her location, so I was scared that he couldn’t find us,’ Zoey said.
Bailey Vanden Bossche, 14, was bit by a rattlesnake while mountain bike riding late last month
By the time her father arrived on the scene, her ankle had already swollen to the size of a golf ball
Bailey’s father was ultimately able to track them down, and when he took off his daughter’s shoe, her ankle had already swollen to the size of a golf ball.
She could no longer move, at which point Bailey’s father called 911.
By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, Bailey also started having trouble breathing.
‘You could see her face distorted and the muscles going in different ways,’ her grandfather, Bryan Vanden Bossche, recounted. ‘So it was a very scary moment.’
Quick-thinking first responders immediately gave the teen some medicine to help slow the reaction and carried Bailey out on a stretcher designed for remote rescues.
Meanwhile, Cushman was left in disbelief as she spoke to first responders – and learned that rattlesnake bites can be fatal.
‘That hit me like a train,’ the worried mother said.
Bailey’s grandfather, Bryan Vanden Bossche, recounted how her face was distorted
Bailey went on to spend five days in the hospital, followed by a trip to a pediatrician, a return trip to the emergency room to rule out a blood clot, and then a visit to urgent care when her foot broke out in a rash.
‘There are issues with anti-venom,’ explained Bryan, who worked as a firefighter for 30 years. He noted that patients could have allergic reactions or blood clots from the medication.
Fortunately, though, Bailey did not suffer any tissue damage, but may require physical therapy to get out of her crutches. At the same time, she must monitor her ankle for any complications.
Despite the terrifying ordeal, Bailey said she will not stay away from the trails.
There has been an uptick in rattlesnake bites across California so far this year
But her bite was the third one that week, and it came amid an uptick in snake bites due to the unseasonably warm weather.
Just one day before Bailey’s accident, a woman in Moorpark died from a rattlesnake bite, and an Orange County man died after a rattlesnake bit him while he was hiking in Irvine earlier this year.
In total, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are about 7,000 to 8,000 bites each year in the US, with an average of five people dying from them each year.
Doctors recommend that those who do get bitten by a rattlesnake keep the affected area at or below heart level, do not apply ice, do not cut the wound, and do not suck out the venom.
Instead, doctors say patients should seek help immediately.
