14 DAY TRIAL // A 16-year-old resident of El Cajon, San Diego, California, has recovered from six venomous rattlesnake bites.
Vera Oliphant came across the venomous snakes as she visited her uncle in the north San Diego rural area of Jamul. She was looking for a cellphone signal, attempting to get in contact with her mother, and eventually wandered off in the nearby hills, when she stepped into a pit of snakes.
The snake's nest was covered by twigs and weeds, and the teen never saw it coming. She wasn't looking down at what laid in the bushes. A mother snake and five baby snakes immediately launched themselves at her right foot, biting her.
The 16-year-old spent four days in intensive care following the incident, at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, Huffington Post reports. Twice she went into anaphylactic shock, and she had to be administered 24 vials of antivenom.
As she was rushed to the emergency room with six bites, she had to remain calm, as stressing out would have allowed the venom to work faster. She didn't think she would survive, as she lost consciousness four times.
“I told my mom and my boyfriend I love them in case I don't get to see them again,” she explains.
“I thought I was going to die,” she says, according to San Diego North County Times.
Vera remembers seeing a “dark tunnel,” in the midst of her experience.
“My vision started to go right away. First it looked like the snakes blended into the leaves and then I started seeing black spots around the edges and I started blacking out,” she describes.
The teenager recovered from the October 27 incident, and will return to attend classes at Chaparral High School in El Cajon.
“If you're in the desert, for one, wear boots, and two, don't bring your cell phone or go searching for reception because you won't find it anyway and you might step into a pit of rattlesnakes,” she says to KCTV5, in retrospect.