Mistaking a rattler for gopher snake

Phoenix resident gets painful bite after mistaking rattler for gopher snake

The snake was way too cool and calm for it to be a rattler.
Trevor Harwood, 41, thought he had seen enough snakes to know which are dangerous. After all, Harwood had encountered numerous slithery critters, especially rattlesnakes, near his Tramonto home in north Phoenix.
He would pick them up with a snake tong and return them to the desert.
But recently a snake fooled Harwood when what he thought was a gopher snake bit him on the right knuckle. The bite sent him to Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, where he spent two nights and received antivenin treatment.
"The pain, on a 1 to 10 scale, it was always a 10 if not worse," Harwood said. "It is constantly throbbing pain that never goes away, that is with taking the IV medication."

Banner Health officials warn Valley residents to be aware of rattlesnakes because they are active now that the temperatures are in the high 80s or low 90s. Dr. Daniel Brooks, Banner Good Samaritan Poison and Drug Information Center's medical toxicologist, said 65 patients were treated last yearfor snakebites. Five rattlesnake bite victims have been recorded so far this year, Banner Health officials said.
Brooks said bites often occur near homes adjacent to desert areas. Harwood's home backs up to Skunk Creek which is part of the Sonoran Preserve.
Harwood's encounter started when he heard noises from his son's friends, who were eating lunch in the backyard on a Sunday afternoon in March. Rattlesnakes that Harwood had come across acted aggressively, but this snake was calm and napped under a shrub.

Harwood, believing it was a gopher snake, decided to remove the critter with a rake because a snake tong was not nearby. When the snake moved out from under the plant, it headed toward the house and the rake became useless, Harwood said.
"So, I got a shorter stick and I was teasing it around the corner to get it to go out," he said. "It turned around and bit me. It didn't strike. It was a slow movement and it kept going. It was kind of surreal."
Though Harwood continued to believe a gopher snake bit him, his oldest son called the fire department.
Firefighters determined it was a diamondback rattler.