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Tampa Postman OK After Getting Fang Mail From Likely Rattler

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Efrain Arango kept delivering mail after being bitten by a snake in a New Tampa mailbox, but he wound up at University Community Hospital.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 10, 2008

TAMPA - Forget rain, sleet or snow: The bite of a venomous snake didn't keep mail carrier Efrain Arango from his appointed rounds.

What authorities think was a diamondback rattlesnake latched onto the 66-year-old's left index finger Friday after Arango surprised it in a New Tampa mailbox. Arango said he shook his arm and thwacked the small snake against his car door to break its grip.

Then, with his fingertip bruised and bleeding, he delivered packages for about 30 minutes before seeking help at the New Tampa Post Office, where a supervisor called 911.

"I finished my route. I have to do my job," Arango said this afternoon, resting in the emergency center of University Community Hospital. "I have lots of bills to pay."

Joe Pittman, a registered nurse at the hospital and a snakebite specialist for the Florida Poison Control Center, administered pain medication to Arango but no antivenin because Arango's symptoms weren't severe. He considered keeping Arango overnight to ensure he was in good health.

Arango said he kept working immediately after the bite because his symptoms developed slowly, which Pittman said is common. By the time Arango returned to the post office, "my arm was like a fire inside," he said.

His hand swelled, and he couldn't move his fingers, he said. "I thought I was going to die." Talking with reporters, he flexed his fingers, noting the medication had helped. "Now I can move."

Arango said he has worked as a contractor with the Postal Service for about 11 months, delivering about 150 packages daily. He uses his own car.

He took the job to help pay his youngest daughter's college loans from Florida Metropolitan University. He also works as a middle-school bus driver, sandwiching the mail delivery between driving children to school and driving them home.

Arango said he was in the 20000 block of Merry Oak Avenue about 11 a.m. today when he opened a mailbox to see a small parcel inside. "When I tried to remove the package, I saw something move," he said.

He jumped, and the snake bit him. "In that moment I was scared. I shake and I shake," he said, waving his hand to describe trying to knock the snake loose. "There is no one around to help me."

Tampa Fire Rescue responded to the New Tampa post office at 16350 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. about 11:40 a.m. after Arango drove himself there and alerted a supervisor.

Pittman said Arango identified the snake that bit him – brown with yellow spots – by indicating a photograph of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake. In Florida, bites from these snakes cause the most fatalities, he said.

"It's not the first time I've heard of a snake in a mailbox," Pittman said, noting that snakes will seek a high perch after rain. "Snakes can get into amazing places. They'll flatten their bodies right out."

They're not the only creatures that like mailboxes. Pittman said he has heard of people being bitten by stowaway black widow spiders, Florida scorpions and wasps.

From now on, Arango said, he will look carefully before reaching into a mailbox. "Aye, mama mia," he said. "I never expected this."

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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