Boy recovers after receiving "dry bite" from rattlesnake
CULBERTSON, Nebraska -- A 10-year-old Trenton, Nebraska, boy suffered what the doctor thinks is a "dry bite" by a rattlesnake.
The Hitchcock County News reports that Logan Schaffert, the son of Robin and Warren Schaffert, was playing with other children at a wedding reception Saturday outside the Hitchcock County fair building in Culbertson when he ran up the wheelchair ramp to the grand stand. Somewhere along the way, the News reports, he must have startled a rattlesnake.
Logan ran back inside the fair building, where EMTs Dana Lucero, his aunt, and Dennis Chambers contacted Community Hospital of McCook. They were told to keep Logan calm and not to use a tourniquet or ice or elevate his leg.
At the hospital, the News story relates, the doctor told the Schafferts that because Logan was running, he possibly scared the snake. He called the bite a "dry bite" -- not deep and with less venom. The puncture spread indicated that the snake's head would have been about 1-11⁄2 inches across.
Logan was kept in the hospital overnight for observation, but he was not administered anti-venom.