Clay Davenport
Cerebral Nomad
Wow, 56 vials for a 12 year old. That's unbelievable.
RANCHO BERNARDO – Living on a canyon close to Lake Hodges, 12-year-old Jerianne Young was well-versed in the dangers of rattlesnakes. During the hottest months of the year, the cold-blooded vipers have been known to slither onto her family's doormat or into a neighbor's cool garage.
On Easter Sunday, Jerianne and her friend, Madison Jones, were playing ball when they got caught up in a game of tag with Madison's brother. Jerianne and Madison ran onto a dirt path across the street that is used to access power lines. At the time, the path was filled with new plant growth. In some spots, the weeds were knee-deep. There was no warning, not even a tell-tale rattle.
Though Jerianne doesn't remember feeling the snake strike her left ankle, she has a vivid recollection of the intense pain that followed.
“After it bit me, it started to tingle really bad,” said Jerianne, a seventh-grader at Bernardo Heights Middle School. “I just got all numb.
“I didn't exactly see it, but my friend said she thinks it was 5 to 6 feet long.”
Jerianne first ran to her grandparents' home, though she was too excited to punch in the entry code correctly. She and Madison next tried the home of a family friend, who phoned Jerianne's parents, then 911.
“She was sweating all over, her arms, her face, her forehead,” said Jerianne's mother, Tammy Young. “Her skin was twitching like she had 100 bees running underneath, all over her body. Her nerves had just gone crazy.”
Jerianne was initially taken to Palomar Hospital, then transferred to Children's, where she remained for 12 days. By the time she arrived, her entire leg had begun turning black.
Her father, Steve Young, said severe swelling in Jerianne's leg was choking off the blood supply to the muscles. Doctors had to open up the leg to relieve the pressure, a surgical procedure known as a fasciotomy.
“She lost quite a bit of muscle tissue and skin due to the severity of the bite,” Steve Young said. “If they hadn't done that (surgery), she probably would have lost all of the muscle in her lower leg.”
Maya Pring, the orthopedic surgeon who worked on Jerianne, said there was an initial concern that she might lose her foot and the lower part of her leg.
“Snake bites are usually not this bad,” Steve Young said. “She got a total of 56 viles of antivenin. That's just an ungodly amount.”
Jerianne, an honor roll student who runs cross country and plays soccer, softball and baseball, has spent four months recovering from surgery, which required three lengthy incisions and skin grafts to replace tissue that died from the venom.
Missing out on sports has been the tough, she said.
“The night I came back (from the hospital) they were having all-star tryouts for softball,” Jerianne said. “It was kind of hard not being able to participate.”
Her goal is to make the cross country team by spring.
Though Jerianne's recovery is progressing well, she still has a small open wound on her leg that has not closed. Her parents have suspended physical therapy until it heals.
Tammy Young said she hopes that as a result of hearing her daughter's story, others will realize how severe rattlesnake bites can be and will educate children and remind them to watch where they step and avoid areas where snakes commonly dwell.
“It's just so much more dangerous than you could imagine,” Young said. “It's not, go to the emergency room, get antivenin and go home.”
Steve Young said he believes the care his daughter received at Children's Hospital saved her life.
“I can't say enough about the people at that hospital,” he said. “They were very aggressive and just stayed on top of it.”
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RANCHO BERNARDO – Living on a canyon close to Lake Hodges, 12-year-old Jerianne Young was well-versed in the dangers of rattlesnakes. During the hottest months of the year, the cold-blooded vipers have been known to slither onto her family's doormat or into a neighbor's cool garage.
On Easter Sunday, Jerianne and her friend, Madison Jones, were playing ball when they got caught up in a game of tag with Madison's brother. Jerianne and Madison ran onto a dirt path across the street that is used to access power lines. At the time, the path was filled with new plant growth. In some spots, the weeds were knee-deep. There was no warning, not even a tell-tale rattle.
Though Jerianne doesn't remember feeling the snake strike her left ankle, she has a vivid recollection of the intense pain that followed.
“After it bit me, it started to tingle really bad,” said Jerianne, a seventh-grader at Bernardo Heights Middle School. “I just got all numb.
“I didn't exactly see it, but my friend said she thinks it was 5 to 6 feet long.”
Jerianne first ran to her grandparents' home, though she was too excited to punch in the entry code correctly. She and Madison next tried the home of a family friend, who phoned Jerianne's parents, then 911.
“She was sweating all over, her arms, her face, her forehead,” said Jerianne's mother, Tammy Young. “Her skin was twitching like she had 100 bees running underneath, all over her body. Her nerves had just gone crazy.”
Jerianne was initially taken to Palomar Hospital, then transferred to Children's, where she remained for 12 days. By the time she arrived, her entire leg had begun turning black.
Her father, Steve Young, said severe swelling in Jerianne's leg was choking off the blood supply to the muscles. Doctors had to open up the leg to relieve the pressure, a surgical procedure known as a fasciotomy.
“She lost quite a bit of muscle tissue and skin due to the severity of the bite,” Steve Young said. “If they hadn't done that (surgery), she probably would have lost all of the muscle in her lower leg.”
Maya Pring, the orthopedic surgeon who worked on Jerianne, said there was an initial concern that she might lose her foot and the lower part of her leg.
“Snake bites are usually not this bad,” Steve Young said. “She got a total of 56 viles of antivenin. That's just an ungodly amount.”
Jerianne, an honor roll student who runs cross country and plays soccer, softball and baseball, has spent four months recovering from surgery, which required three lengthy incisions and skin grafts to replace tissue that died from the venom.
Missing out on sports has been the tough, she said.
“The night I came back (from the hospital) they were having all-star tryouts for softball,” Jerianne said. “It was kind of hard not being able to participate.”
Her goal is to make the cross country team by spring.
Though Jerianne's recovery is progressing well, she still has a small open wound on her leg that has not closed. Her parents have suspended physical therapy until it heals.
Tammy Young said she hopes that as a result of hearing her daughter's story, others will realize how severe rattlesnake bites can be and will educate children and remind them to watch where they step and avoid areas where snakes commonly dwell.
“It's just so much more dangerous than you could imagine,” Young said. “It's not, go to the emergency room, get antivenin and go home.”
Steve Young said he believes the care his daughter received at Children's Hospital saved her life.
“I can't say enough about the people at that hospital,” he said. “They were very aggressive and just stayed on top of it.”
Link
