ELK COUNTY, Pa. (EYT) – Sources say a man died this morning after being bitten by a rattlesnake in Elk County.
(Photo courtesy of PA DCNR)
According to a published article in Pittsburgh Post Gazette, on Saturday night, 39-year-old Russell E. Davis, of Freedom, Pa., was sitting near a camp fire at his family’s camp at Medix Run in Elk County and was bitten shortly before midnight.
Sources say Mr. Davis had a cardiac arrest in the helicopter while en route to a Pittsburgh hospital and was re-routed to ACMH Hospital in Kittanning, where he was pronounced dead at 5:23 a.m. on July 19.
Armstrong County Coroner Brian K. Myers ruled the cause of death as Anaphylaxis reaction to a venomous snake bite, according to sources.
It was ruled as an accident, and no autopsy will be performed, sources say.
The Center for Disease Control estimates that 7,000 to 8,000 people per year receive venomous bites in the United States, and about five of those people die.
There have been no deaths in Pennsylvania attributable to timber rattlesnake bites for at least 30 years, according to The Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
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