A five-year-old girl from Georgia ended up in a pediatric intensive care unit where she was treated with 41 vials of anti-venom after sustaining life-threatening bites from a timber rattlesnake.
Recent kindergarten graduate Maisy Lamica was playing in her dad’s backyard on Friday, June 18 when her cat cornered a rattlesnake — but when Maisy got near them, the snake pounced, biting her leg three times.
After a 911 call, Maisy was rushed to a local hospital and then airlifted to one in another state, where doctors rushed to help her through anaphylactic shock.
Scary! A five-year-old girl ended up in a pediatric intensive care unit where she was treated with 41 vials of anti-venom after sustaining life-threatening bites from a rattlesnake
Bitten: Maisy Lamica from Georgia was playing in her backyard when the snake bit her leg three times
Timber rattlesnakes, also called canebrake rattlesnake, have gray or tan bodies with black, chevron-like bands and a reddish-brown stripe down the middle.
They measure 36 to 60 inches, and while venomous, aren’t aggressive unless provoked — which Maisy’s cat seemed to do.
When Maisy was bitten, her dad was nearby and immediately called 911, and Maisy was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
But she was also going into anaphylactic shock, so she was soon air-lifted to Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, where doctors in the pediatric ICU got her up to 41 vials of anti-venom, as well as antibiotics, steroids, and fluids.
Because Maisy’s lungs started to close up, doctors also intubated her while they worked to save her leg.
‘The amount of times that snake bit her was enough to kind of sedate an elephant at this point basically,’ her mother, Cyndi Spell, told Gray News/WALB.
She was soon air-lifted to Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Florida, where doctors in the pediatric ICU got her up to 41 vials of anti-venom, as well as antibiotics, steroids, and fluids
‘The amount of times that snake bit her was enough to kind of sedate an elephant at this point basically,’ her mother, Cyndi Spell, said
‘We got to the hospital, they were trying to reassure us she was going to be OK, but she just did not look anything OK at all. She was pale, vitals were immediately going down very fast. A very scary situation.’
In the days since, Maisy’s condition has improved, and her mother has shared her relief over her progress.
‘She’s a lot better,’ she told Today. ‘The doctors are blown away at how she has pulled through. Her leg finally quit swelling… there was a moment we were unsure if orthopedic doctors would need to cut it open to relieve the swelling.
‘Aside from her puffy leg, the bite marks that are still prominent and five days in pediatric intensive care, she’s her same silly smiling self,’ she added.
On Monday, Maisy was moved to the pediatric recovery unit, and next she will get physical therapy to help her get back up and moving.
‘The leg that was bit is still so very tender/somewhat swollen and she will need a good bit of time to bear full weight on it, and walk normally again,’ Spell wrote on Facebook.
Getting better: In the days since, Maisy’s condition has improved, and her mother has shared her relief over her progress
On her way back to health: On Monday, Maisy was moved to the pediatric recovery unit, and next she will get physical therapy to help her get back up and moving
‘We still don’t have a date on when she will be released but we pray it’s soon,’ she added.
Spell, who has five other children, said that she is speaking out to stress the importance of children learning about snakes and the dangers they pose.
‘I don’t know if it would have changed much, but I look back and wonder instead of telling my child, “Beware of snakes, snakes are scary and snakes are dangerous,” maybe informing her more of what to do when she actually came across one might have helped some,’ she said.
‘My kids will know snakes are not some imaginary boogie man. They are real, they are powerful and they can kill you. We know this firsthand because we almost lost Maisy,’ she added.