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A 14-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital after being bitten by a rattlesnake while mountain biking on the Wendy Trail in Newbury Park, just a couple miles from her home.
The bite happened around 5:30 p.m. in late March during an afternoon ride with a friend.
Bailey Vanden Bossche and her friend, Zoey Bark, initially thought she had broken her ankle because the wound was small and only a single puncture was visible.
The venom quickly spread.
“My face started tingling and then my hearing went out and my body just did not feel good,” Bailey told CBS News.
By the time her father arrived, she could not move and her face had become distorted.
Firefighters hiked in to rescue her and she was taken to a nearby hospital for anti-venom treatment, which carries its own risks. She is now recovering at home on crutches and her foot remains swollen.
Bailey’s bite comes amid a surge of rattlesnake encounters across Southern California.
Just weeks earlier, a 46-year-old woman died after being bitten in Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, also in Ventura County
In Orange County, a 25-year-old man died following a bite while mountain biking at Quail Hill Trailhead near Irvine earlier this year.
Experts say the spike in bites is linked to unusually warm early-season temperatures that have made snakes more active than normal.
Authorities are warning hikers, bikers and outdoor enthusiasts to stay alert, wear proper footwear and know the correct steps if bitten.
Rattlesnakes typically avoid humans and are generally timid, but they will strike defensively if they are startled or perceive a direct threat.
Despite the general risk of venomous snakebites, which number approximately 7,000 to 8,000 yearly in the United States, bites resulting in death are extremely uncommon, with only about five or six fatalities reported each year.
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