An 18-month-old Weld County boy bitten by a baby rattlesnake while playing in his yard may be released today from Children’s Hospital of Denver.
Ty “Josh” Sampson was bitten on the hand Sunday at his home near Briggsdale, Weld County authorities said.
He was in moderate pain Monday while doctors monitored his left hand and wrist, which was swollen from the bite, his mother, Cora Will, said.
“He’s really doing well, but he’s been crying a lot,” said Will, who is deaf but was speaking through an interpreter.
Will, 24, who lives with her son at her father’s home, said she was having a meal with her father just after 5 p.m. when the boy started crying.
“We saw that his finger was bleeding, and I kind of looked around and noticed something moving in the grass, and that was where the rattlesnake was still moving,” she said. “When I saw it, I was of course freaked out. … My son, being so young, I thought he would die.”
Will said she grabbed a stick and beat and prodded the rattlesnake to death. It was a baby, she said, about 5 inches long.
Doctors said the boy’s injury wasn’t life-threatening. He was airlifted to Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, where he was treated with antivenin.
The boy later was flown to Children’s Hospital, where Dr. Amy Shriver said the early treatment had prevented serious damage to his kidneys.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
