A 1-year-old Arizona girl barely survived a rattlesnake attack — requiring 30 vials of antivenom after she was bitten twice on her foot, according to her horrified mother.
The little girl, Cara, still needs to undergo surgery after she was bitten earlier this month while out in her yard with her mom, Jacquelyn Reed.
Reed had picked up a piece of trash in their yard in Florence and went to throw it away. She told 12 News that she wasn’t gone for 10 seconds when she heard her daughter shriek in agony.
“I saw four puncture wounds on the top of her foot and I did luckily see the snake tucked behind the propane tank,” she told Fox Local. “I was able to put two and two together and then just rush her to the hospital.”
Reed raced to the nearby emergency room, calling ahead to let doctors know that her daughter desperately needed antivenom. Cara was then airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital and they began treatment, according to local reports.
“Her foot was already black,” the mother said. “I was terrified.”
Reed said she went right into “go mode” when she saw her daughter in distress.
“It was really about the response of moving quickly that I think saved her life,” she told News 12.
Cara vomited, lost consciousness, labored to breathe and needed to be put on a ventilator, her mother told the local station.
Specialists discovered that the toddler’s vocal cords were swollen nearly shut and provided Cara with more steroids and other treatments.
“We were told that if she didn’t show improvement within the hour, that we would be reintubating her with a tiny breathing tube and heading to the OR to have a vocal cord dilation performed,” her aunt, Delia Reed, wrote on a GoFundMe page for the toddler.
“It’s really difficult to watch all of her complications,” the little girl’s mom said.
Within a few days in the hospital, Cara finally made some progress, Reed said.
She could wiggle her toes and had her breathing tube removed and was eventually sent home to recuperate, according to Fox.
But the 1-year-old is still in a lot of pain and needs to consult with a surgeon, according to reports.
She also has a surgery scheduled for damage she sustained to her vocal cords.
Reed described Cara as the “angel of the family” and the “light.”
“Obviously, I hope that we can get full function back, that she can, you know, be back to her normal, happy, cute, adorable self.”
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