Steve Merlo: A snakebite story that will rattle your nerves

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Coach Outlet A recent incident where local businessman Mike Stier got bitten by a rattlesnake while bass fishing and nearly lost his life raises questions regarding the proper treatment of a snakebite. After lengthy conversations with the victim and his doctor, I was astounded to find that the once-traditional methods of dealing with the injury have nothing to do with the current and correct treatment of a venomous snakebite.
Sucking or cutting the woundsite, using a tourniquet, holding the afflicted area above the heart or icing down the wound are now considered absolute no-nos and can actually cause disfigurement, infection and even death if used for treatment.
Cheap coach bags Hunters, fishermen, hikers and campers can and do contact rattlesnakes at almost any location in California. All snakes are attracted to areas with shade, brush, rocks, or food and water, where they can lie in ambush mode, feeding on hapless prey that saunters past. Normally, they avoid human contact if possible, but when they feel threatened, they will strike out at what they perceive as an immediate danger.
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The worst part - well, one of the worst parts, disregarding the collapse of modern civilization - is that it was my own stupid choice to leave Florida in the first place, and here I am spending my last days trying to get back there. I don't have the Creep yet but let's not pretend I'm special or mysteriously immune. I'm not the plucky heroine of a summer blockbuster who will find true love (shaggy-haired Brendan Fraser would be nice, or Daniel Craig with his icy blue eyes) and then become matriarch of a community of ragtag survivors. I'm just me - Susan Donoghue, thirty-one, former textbook writer, currently hiking down I-95 in North Carolina armed with a .45 handgun, pepper spray, and a hunting knife. I won't let anyone touch me.
Let's not pretend, either, that I'm on anything but a fool's errand. My sister Marie, her husband Mike, and my baby niece Monica are probably already dead. The best I'll be able to do is bury them. Take their hardened, Creepified bodies and put them in the dirt, then drop down beside them.