5 hours ago
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A New York cyclist who tried to save a venomous snake from being run over was instead bitten by it — sending him to the hospital with a grotesquely swollen purple finger.
Dan Geiger, a writer from Manhattan, was pedaling along New Jersey’s Palisades Cliffs when he spotted the copperhead snake lying across the pavement and feared it would be run over by a car, according to Hackensack Memorial Health.
“I nudged it,” Geiger told Fox 5 of the viper snake that seemed “lethargic” and didn’t move.
“I just sort of nudged again, and I was just too close,” he recalled.
“My hand was just too close to its head, I guess, and it just struck me with precision and speed.”
Two good Samaritans helped Geiger call 911, and he was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center, where a specially trained toxicology team treated his bite, the hospital said.
Geiger’s finger had ballooned and turned a dark shade of purple, gnarly photos show.
After assessing the bite, doctors administered antivenom to stop permanent damage to the unlucky cyclist’s hand.
“Once you get antivenom, I think people expect that it’s like this miracle cure where all of a sudden like everything goes back to normal,” Dr. Daria Falkowitz, director of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Hackensack University Medical Center, told Fox 5.
“It just stops things from getting worse, and so whatever tissue damage has already occurred prior to receiving it, is there. Though initially it doesn’t look bad, the damage has been done, so we expect some progression over a day or two.”
Geiger spent two nights at the hospital for observation and was discharged, though he still won’t be able to use his hand for a week, the hospital said.
Though bites are fairly rare, venomous snakes inhabit the surrounding area of Bergen County.
“They most of the time avoid people,” Dr. Falkowitz told the outlet.
“It’s more of a risk for like little kids and pets that you want to try and keep out of there and try not to specifically reach for them.”
English (US)