Texas man nearly dies after being bitten by severed snake head

A Texas man needed 26 doses of antivenom after a beheaded rattlesnake bit him last month near Corpus Christi, according to media reports today.

Jennifer Sutcliffe told local station KIII-TV that her husband was working in the garden on May 27 when he saw the four-foot rattlesnake and decapitated it.

When he picked up the snake’s remains to dispose them, the head bit him.

She called 911 and started driving to the hospital, and her husband began having seizures, lost his vision and had internal bleeding, the channel reported. An air ambulance was requisitioned and the man was airlifted to the hospital.

“A normal person who is going to get bit is going to get two to four doses of antivenom,” Sutcliffe told the station. “He had to have 26 doses.”

More than a week after the incident, the man is reportedly in stable condition, with some weakened kidney function, reports said.

Texas is home to at least six rattlesnake species.