A copperhead snake looks up at the Nature Museum in Charlotte, N.C., Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)Reptile experts and wildlife officials were stunned by the news that an East Ridge man died Saturday after being bitten by a copperhead snake.
Wade Westbrook, 26, was bitten on his upper right arm while handling a copperhead his friend brought over, according to East Ridge Police.
“It’s extremely unusual for someone to die from a copperhead bite. It is especially unusual for someone to die as quickly as he did. And it is very rare for someone in a metropolitan area to succumb to a bite. Usually they are able to get help in time,” said Dan Hicks, spokesman for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which is conducting a follow-up investigation along with East Ridge Police. “The people at his home said he was blue in the face after 10 minutes.”
Emergency medical personnel arrived at the house at 1058 Blanton Drive around 8 p.m. They attempted CPR on Westbrook, then took him to Erlanger hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The snake also was taken to the hospital so physicians would know how to treat Westbrook. Physicians confirmed that the snake was a copperhead, East Ridge police said Sunday night.
The man who literally wrote the book on Southeastern snakes said copperhead fatalities are “rare to nonexistent.”