SAN DIEGO: A teenage California girl searching for a cell phone signal to call her mother in a rural area outside San Diego inadvertently stepped into a nest of rattlesnakes and was bitten six times, but survived.
The 16-year-old, Vera Oliphant, spent four days in the intensive care unit of Sharp Grossmont Hospital, and doctors gave her 24 vials of antivenom after she was bitten by an adult rattlesnake and five young rattlers outside her uncle's home.
"I was trying to find a signal to call my mom and text my boyfriend," Oliphant said on Friday, a day after she was released from the hospital following the Oct. 27 incident. "I didn't see them until I already stepped on their nest and I felt them biting me." "My vision started to go right away.
First it looked like the snakes blended into the leaves and then I started seeing black spots around the edges and I started blacking out." She returned to her uncle's home in Jamul, outside San Diego, and he immediately packed her into the car and rushed her to the emergency room, she said.
On the way, she talked to her mom and her boyfriend, who told her to stay calm so the venom wouldn't spread. "I told my mom and my boyfriend I love them in case I don't get to see them again," she said. Doctors there administered 24 vials of antivenom to quash the dangerous toxins, according to a hospital spokesman.
Snakebites usually aren't fatal, although a handful of people die in the United States each year from snake bites, including bites from rattlesnakes. Oliphant has recovered and will be returning to classes at Chaparral High School in El Cajon on Monday.
California teen steps into rattlesnake nest, survives
California teen steps into rattlesnake nest, survives
Prince William brings his son to the same homeless shelter he first visited with Princess Diana
- The royal father and son were seen decorating a Christmas tree and helping with meal preparations in the kitchen at The Passage in central London
LONDON: Prince William and his eldest son, Prince George, put on aprons to help make Christmas lunch at a homeless shelter, a charity that the Prince of Wales first visited as a child with his mother, the late Princess Diana.
The royal father and son were seen decorating a Christmas tree and helping with meal preparations in the kitchen at The Passage in central London, in a video posted to William's YouTube account on Saturday.
“Proud to join volunteers and staff at The Passage in preparing Christmas lunch – this year with another pair of helping hands,” read a post on the social media account of William and his wife, Princess Catherine.
William is the royal patron of The Passage, which he first visited when he was 11 with his mother, Diana. The heir to the throne has visited the charity in recent years, but this was the first time George, 12, joined him.
The young royal signed his name in a book on the same page that Diana and William had written their names 32 years ago, in December 1993.
William was shown pouring Brussels sprouts onto an oven tray, while George helped set out Yorkshire puddings and set a long table for dozens of attendees.
William launched his Homewards project in 2023 to tackle homelessness.
