Teen talks snake bite hike
Mackenzie Cosgrove is happy to be home after spending seven days at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital. She was hiking in rocky terrain with her family on Mother’s Day on a trail above Indian Wells when a rattlesnake struck her two times in the leg without warning.
She was welcomed back to school Monday by her friends who helped push her throughout campus in her wheelchair.
“Feeling alright, my medicine makes me kind of nauseous. It’s better than being in a ton of pain. I’m just thankful to be out of the ICU,” said Cosgrove.
Cosgrove’s right leg is still swollen from the venom of the snake she said was about five feet long. She said an hour into her hike up the Mount Eisenhower Trail she stepped over the “wrong rock.”
“In the moment it felt like I got hit in the leg with a cactus almost. I immediately turned around and saw it rearing back up again so I ran. At first I was kinf of like hysterically screaming. ‘Oh my God, I’m going to be OK right?'”
While Cosgrove’s parents called for help, she did what any teenager might in that painful situation.
“I had my phone. I turned on Pandora. I was Tweeting and texting my friends, ‘Oh my God I just got bit by a rattlesnake,'” she said.
Emergency crews hiked to find her and gave her first aid before airlifting her to the hospital.
When you hit the trails keep your eyes and ears open. If you see a rattlesnake stay calm and slowly walk away. Avoid reaching or stepping into places or bushes you can’t see clearly. Hike with a buddy.
Cosgrove’s return home comes just in time for National Emergency Medical Services Week and she wants to thank the crews who came to her rescue.
“It was a blessing. I would probably be in a lot worse shape without them so I’m really happy to be here,” she said.
Cosgrove will be on crutches or in her wheelchair until the lingering pain goes away. When she’s healed she plans to continue hiking, maybe not the same trail anytime soon, she said.
