August 9, 2001

PRESS RELEASE

To: Newsroom

For Immediate Release

Contact: Brian A. Crawford, Public Information Officer

Phone: 673-6652, cell: 455-2609, page: 675-2137

Woman Recovering After Snake Bite

■ Fire Department offers safety tips

A Shreveport woman who was bitten by a snake late Tuesday night in the backyard of her Yarbrough neighborhood home, remains hospitalized today.

Mary Littlefield, 49, said she and her husband were in the backyard of their home at 5927 Dianne Street around 9:30 p.m., when she said that she felt the bite on her lower leg. Littlefield said that she took a flashlight she was holding and shined it toward the ground, where she saw not one snake but two. Her husband was able to kill the one that struck her.

When fire department paramedics arrived on the scene, they recognized Littlefield as being the mother of Shreveport firefighter Joey Burnett. She was treated and taken by ambulance to Christus Schumpert Highland Hospital. According to Littlefield the snake was a copper head and may have been drawn out by her having watered the lawn earlier in the day. Her leg is still swollen and the site of the poisonous strike remains painful. Doctors have told her that she may get to go home tomorrow.

The Shreveport Fire Department offers the following safety tips in the event of a snake bite:1. Get the victim away from the snake.2. Check the snakebite for puncture wounds. If one or two fang markings arevisible, the bite is from a poisonous pit viper. 3. Remember what the snake looks like. The doctor will need to know this toprovide the proper treatment.4. Keep the victim calm, lying down, and with the bitten arm or leg below thelevel of his heart to slow the blood flowing from the wound to the heart. Themore the victim moves, the faster the venom spreads through the body.5. Clean the wound. Be sure to wipe away from the bite. This keeps any venomon the unbroken skin around the bite from being wiped into the wound.6. Watch for general symptom (i.e. sharp pain, bruising, swelling around thebite, weakness, shortness of breath, blurred vision, drowsiness, or vomiting.7. Get the victim to the hospital as soon as possible - CALL 911If any of the above mentioned symptoms occur within 30 minutes from the time of the bite, and you are over two hours away from medical help, tie a constricting band (3/4 to 1 ½ inches wide) two inches above the bite or above the swelling. The band needs to be loose enough to slip a finger underneath it. The band slows blood flow away from the bite, keeping the venom from reaching the heart. The band must be applied within 30 minutes after thetime of the bite to be effective. If the swelling spreads, move the band so that it is two inches above the swelling. ###