Young Rattlesnake Bite Victim Recovering, Recalls His ‘Owee’

A day after being released from a hospital for treatment of a rattlesnake bite, little Jacob Staitman is doing well and playing with his sister Sarah, his father said Wednesday.

But Jacob isn’t yet out of the woods. Doctors must continue to keep a close eye on his injured hand to make sure it heals properly, said Steven Staitman of Thousand Oaks.

Jacob, who turned 22 months on Sunday, was bitten on the right hand by a baby rattlesnake while playing on his family’s patio that afternoon.

Staitman was only 10 feet away when he heard his oldest child wail. “He screamed out. I thought he had gotten his fingers stuck in the door or something.”

“I was scared to death,” Steven Staitman said. “I thought he was going to die.”

Staitman rushed outside, looked down and saw the small rattlesnake--about 12 to 15 inches long--coiled up on the patio concrete.

In minutes, a Sheriff’s Department helicopter arrived at the Camberwell Place home and flew Jacob and his father to St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

After spending a couple of hours in the trauma center, Jacob was sent to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara because of its top-notch pediatric intensive care unit, Staitman said.

Jacob underwent delicate surgery on the base of his badly swollen right palm and he needed every drop of antivenin the hospital had--16 vials in all, Staitman said. Jacob spent two days at Cottage before he was released Tuesday afternoon.

“He’s a very verbal kid. He was telling us how he was in the backyard, that he was in danger and the he had an ‘owee,’ ” his father said.

Staitman, who along with his wife Karen, runs a gourmet food company in Canoga Park and a semiconductor distribution company in Westlake Village, said he has occasionally seen rattlesnakes near his home since they moved in more than two years ago.

But usually the serpents were adult and the sightings occurred in the summertime. Local officials said that winter attacks are rare.