Health & Fitness
Bucks Co. Teen Hospitalized With Snake Bite: Report
A Northampton teen was bitten by a venomous snake in an Upper Bucks County park on June 26, according to a news report.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA — A Northampton teenager drove herself to the hospital after being bitten by a venomous snake in High Rocks Park in Tinicum Township on June 26.
According to a report by The Intelligencer, 17-year-old Audrey Weir was hiking with her friends when she encountered the copperhead snake around 8:30 p.m.
According to the teen's mother, Stephanie Weir, the Council Rock High School South student is fond of reptiles and approached the reptile thinking it was a common corn snake.
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"Never in her mind did she think a poisonous copperhead snake would be here, until the instant it bit her, she immediately identified the shape of the snake’s head and marking," Weir wrote in an op-ed for The Intelligencer.
Weir drove herself to St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, where she received antivenom and morphine injections before being transported to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for further treatment.
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“It felt like I broke my hand,” Weir told the newspaper. “I’ve never broken a bone in my body and that’s what I compare that pain to, plus with fire pain going through my hand.”
The three venomous species of snakes in Pennsylvania are the Eastern Copperhead, Timber Rattlesnake and Eastern Massasauga, according to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. In Bucks County, you're most likely to encounter an Eastern Copperhead, though they rarely attack humans unless provoked.
Venomous snakes possess an indentation or pit on each side of the head between the eye and nostril, while nonvenomous snakes have round eye pupils and don't possess a pit.
If you believe you were bitten by a venomous snake, you should call 911 or the Penn State Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222. You can immediately treat the wound by applying a light constricting band above the bite area.
Health officials don't recommend using ice, cold packs or sprays to treat a snake bite wound.
Related: Cicadas And Copperheads: Yes, It's A Thing In Pennsylvania
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