SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A Carmel Valley mom recounted her 2-year-old boy's nearly deadly encounter with a rattlesnake in their backyard.
“His fingers are moving, just can't move his thumb,” said Lindsay Pfeffer.
Weeks later, 2-year-old Brigsby is slowly healing after playtime in his backyard in Del Sur turned into a life-and-death nightmare.
“My husband and I were sitting down, watching him. He was just a few feet away,” said Pfeffer.
Pfeffer said her son walked to the fire pit and then went back to her and showed her his hand, where she saw only a single spot of blood.
Nearby was her 5-year-old son, who yelled, “Snake!”
“I saw and coiled up next to the snake, and oh my God, it's a rattlesnake,” said Pfefer.
She and her husband quickly called 911. An ambulance rushed her son to the nearest hospital with antivenom, some 25 minutes away.
At the hospital, with the venom constricting his veins, staff weren't able to find a vein.
“I was in absolute panic. [I] thought he was going to die…It was awful,” said Pfeffer.
Pfeffer watched in horror as her son grew more lethargic as the venom traveled up his arm.
“It was swelling … It looked [like] it was going to burst. It looked like it was just going to explode,” said Pfeffer.
Doctors decided to perform a ‘Hail Mary’ procedure, drilling into the bone marrow so the antivenom could be injected into the marrow.
It worked. He received a vial, and over the next two days, Brigsby received some 30 vials of antivenom at two hospitals before he was released.
Brigsby suffered nerve damage and has scar tissue, but doctors are hopeful he'll make a full recovery.
“I'm just very grateful,” said Pfeffer. “The odds were stacked against him.”
A relieved mom, who now knows every minute counts when it comes to snake bites, is pleading with the health care industry.
“Antivenom should be in all ambulances and at the least, in all hospitals,” said Pfeffer. “The next child may not be so lucky.”
Brigsby is undergoing physical therapy for his injuries.
After returning from the hospital the night of the snake bite, Pfeffer's husband found and removed the rattlesnake, believed to be a juvenile Southern Pacific rattlesnake.
