If I was going to come up with a freaky serpent-themed nightmare, I'm not sure I could do much better than what happened in real life to 16-year-old Vera Oliphant. Even typing it is enough to make me shudder, so read on with care.
According WTVR, Vera was visiting her uncle somewhere in rural southern California a couple of weeks ago. She was walking up a hill trying to get a signal on her cellphone when she heard the telling rattling of rattlesnakes. In an attempt to get the hell out of there, she ran backwards ... and stepped right into a pit of the snakes.
She told the station she was bitten at least six times, and that almost immediately she started to feel her body going numb. She told U-T San Diego that she went into anaphylactic shock twice and lost consciousness four times. "I thought I was going to die," she said.
Fortunately, she was able to get back to her uncle's house, and he rushed her to the emergency room.
It was touch and go for awhile, as she was in intensive care for four days, and doctors say if she hadn't gotten to the hospital as quickly, things could have turned deadly. As it was, she's left with some scars and she's walking on crutches, but she's okay. Phew!
What a lesson in how important is to step away from our cellphones once in awhile. While there may not be snake pits around every corner, these things are in our hands, and in our children's hands, almost constantly. I see people every day texting and walking, talking, driving, and biking; and accidents are bound to happen when our attention is so focused on these little devices and not on our surroundings. As this case shows, they really could be the death of us.
Do you and/or your children have a problem putting down your cellphones?
Image via WTVR
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Comments 11
Seriously this accident had nothing to do with her cell phone. She was visiting an area she may not have been familar with and stepped backwards into a pit of rattlesnakes. This could have happened to someone hiking or in a million other situations, cell phone or not.
This is kind of a weird way to connect a story about a girl in a snake pit with cellphones... like one of those cautionary tales your batshit crazy luddite aunt tells just to hammer on about god knows what.
I think the lesson is not to panic and run when you hear or see a snake but to proceed with caution.
Really people.....if she wasn't so distracted by her cell phone, perhaps she would have seen the pit of snakes. I mean really, a whole pit of snakes, not just one, would have probably been noticed by a hiker that was actually paying attention to their surroundings. Either way, you can't see whats around you if your focused on looking at your cell phone.