Teenager may lose her arm from a snake bite

A 14-year-old girl was bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake at school. The snake was brought in a shoebox by a male student who attended a drama club gathering in Pottstown, PA.

Copperhead snake bites are typically not fatal but are very painful and may cause extensive tissue damage.

The treatment for poisonous snake bites is with antivenin. Patients who develop compartment syndrome may need fasciotomy.

Antivenin is a neutralizing antibody made from horse serum after the horse is injected with nonlethal doses of snake venom. Most physicians withhold antivenin for copperhead bites.

References:

Snakebite at school may cost teen's arm - CNN
Copperhead - ces.ncsu.edu
Snakebite - eMedicine
American copperhead - Wikipedia
Snake bite poison - U.S. National Library of Medicine
See more copperhead photos on Google Images
The Broadbanded Copperhead - wf.net/~snake
Snakebite - JAMA Patient Page, 2012 (PDF).
Image source: Wikipedia