Snakebite Victim Has Tale To Tell When School's In

There's a lot of summer ahead, but Amanda Marrow is already looking ahead to sixth grade in the fall, when she can tell her classmates her cool snakebite story.

Right at dusk Tuesday, playing with three friends in her parents' back yard off Rough and Ready Highway at Bitney Springs Road, the 10-year-old was bitten on her right big toe by an immature rattler, 12 to 18 inches long.

"I knew it was a rattler, I just didn't want to believe it. I couldn't see its tail, but by its pattern I could tell it was a rattler," said Amanda, back home Wednesday after her trip to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital.

Marrow's mother, Suzanne Marrow, called 911, and dispatchers gave her advice - keep Amanda standing and calm - before medics arrived.

"I said, 'Gosh, I don't know what to do!.' It was a revelation, and I called 911," said Suzanne, who learned she shouldn't apply a tourniquet or try to suck out the poison.

Amanda became white and clammy from shock, as medics said might happen, and her toe swelled up and her foot became black. She went by ambulance to Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, where she received an antivenin treatment and gradually recovered.

On Wednesday, Suzanne said, Amanda's foot was "big and black, and it looks like someone took a mallet to it. And it's going to take a couple weeks to heal."

That means two weeks getting around on crutches and laying off summer pastimes like boating and swimming with her family, which includes her father, Cody, and brothers Nick, 16, and Brad, 12.

Nick and a friend, Aaron Christal, killed the snake with a shovel.

Amanda didn't sound too fazed about being sedentary a while.

"I'll have something to brag about," she said.

Suzanne praised the rescuers, which included workers from Sierra Nevada Ambulance, the Grass Valley Fire Department and Nevada County Consolidated Fire District.

Suzanne said she heard younger snakes aren't as good at regulating their venom, so they're apt to release more when they bite.

There's some truth to that, said Steve Snyder, an information provider for California Poison Control.

"A big snake has more venom than a small snake, but they're in better control of the release of their venom. The idea is that a smaller snake is going to use the maximum amount of its venom," Snyder said.

But, he added, "In my opinion, that's a moot point because you don't want to get bit by a small or large one."

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