re: How Many People Do You Know that Were Bitten by a Venomous Snake?

My Mom was bitten by a Cottonmouth. This would have been when she was about eleven (1917ish) years old. They were chasing rabbits and she mistook the white throat of a Cottommouth snake in a hole for that of a cottontail rabbit. So she reached into the hole to grab "the rabbit" and was bitten by the poisonous snake.

Now this is where God comes in. For whatever reason, her widowed mother did not take her to the doctor. As far as I can tell (the mental image of my Mom suffering from this carried with it an aversion to inquire about specifics), the extent of her treatment for the bite was the application of tourniquet plus someone (the name of that brave soul is forever lost in our family) sucked the poison out of the bite.....AND prayer. Hey, we're talking wilderness here.

My older siblings recounted that Mom had to hold her arm up so as to endure the pain - with all the ugliness a snakebite creates. Somehow, she recovered from the bite. But it left her with bone deterioration / arthritis in that shoulder. The pain in that shoulder plagued her for the rest of her life.

When I learned of the incident, I came to see my Mom as a certified, bonified version of "Superwoman". Offending our Mom just wasn't something any of us kids did.

I miss my Mom.

With friends and family in the hills, would you count snake churches as "bitten". I know some of those folks who were bitten as test of their faith but none of them died. The scars and such was not like just 2 little holes.