Dramatic video shows the heart-pounding moment deputies rushed to save a camper who was bitten by a rattlesnake.
Two officers from the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona were seen responding to a call from the man as he suffered worsening symptoms.
Bodycam footage shows him telling the cops the snake bit him about 30 minutes earlier as he started vomiting, having muscle spasms and sweating profusely.
Law enforcement had difficulty navigating the rural terrain in such a remote area, the office said, and instead of an ambulance, a helicopter was needed to transport the man to proper care.
The footage reveals what happened in between that time, as officers attempted to calm him down to slow down the spread of poison.
“My leg, it feels like it’s spasming,” the man told deputies when they arrived.
An officer told the man to breath in slowly and deeply, adding, “We don’t want your heart rate to get up too fast.”
Moments later, the man is seen lying on the ground and looking a lot more affected by the venom. He tells the officer, almost in a sleeping manner, that he needs to call his wife.
“Hey, keep your eyes open,” the deputy said.
According to the sheriff’s office, the camper’s symptoms became severe, escalating to vomiting, convulsions and intense muscle spasms.
Once medical personnel arrived on the scene, the deputies shifted their focus to clearing and securing a safe helicopter landing zone. After the helicopter arrives, a deputy promises to keep his wife updated as one can see in the footage what looks like a swollen-up arm.
The man was airlifted to a Phoenix-area hospital for emergency treatment, where he spent up to 4 days. He was released and has been recovering at his home, law enforcement said.
“The ability to adapt and understand how to preserve life in so many different, high-stress situations is exactly what makes our deputies heroes,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Reports of rattlesnake bites are on an upward trend across California and the western U.S. In California, more than 250 rattlesnakes have been recorded in Southern California so far as people encounter the snakes on trails or even in backyards.
Bites are extremely rare, but in the case that someone gets bitten, it is important to stay calm and “keep bite area lower than your heart, and call for help,” according to the US Department of Agriculture.
The increasing encounters could be due to a heat wave that swept across the western U.S. this spring, Emily Taylor, a biology professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, told NPR. Those heat waves can cause rattlesnakes to wake up from hibernation much earlier than normal.
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