Josh Kleinbaum
A 2-year-old girl from La Crescenta was released Thursday from a
Pasadena hospital after being treated for a rattlesnake bite.
The girl was bitten at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday while playing in
her yard in the 5400 block of Rock Castle Drive, said Deputy Jim
Noennick of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station. She was taken to
Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale in the back of a police car, and
later transferred to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.
"We transported her to Verdugo Hills Hospital because it was an
emergency," Noennick said. "We assisted by bringing [antivenin] from
Huntington Memorial to Verdugo Hills."
Due to a nationwide shortage, antivenin -- the drug used to treat
rattlesnake bites -- is in short supply at local hospitals, officials
said. Connie Matthews, a spokeswoman for Huntington Memorial
Hospital, said the facility keeps enough antivenin to treat one bite.
But officials said all local hospitals share their antivenin supplies
in emergencies.
Verdugo Hills Hospital officials could not be reached to comment
on why the antivenin had to be brought over from Huntington Memorial.
"Having given the vials over there, we're definitely now hurting,"
Matthews said. "It's rationed out because it's in such short supply."
Sgt. Eileen Hill of Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control
suggested some simple steps to avoid rattlesnakes: Check the yard
before children play, keep the lawn green and short during spring and
summer, and keep bushes and shrubs off the ground, so you can see
under them.
"A block wall wouldn't hurt either," Hill said.
