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2 Pasco County men recovering from rattlesnake bites

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TBO.com

Published: November 2, 2009

Updated: 11/02/2009 01:24 pm

Two Pasco County residents are recovering at a Tampa hospital today after being bitten by rattlesnakes over the weekend.

The incidents happened about 30 minutes apart on Sunday in different areas of Land O' Lakes.

Robert Troidle was bitten in his yard as he was riding in a golf cart, University Community Hospital spokesman Will Darnall said. The bite went through Troidle's tennis shoe.

"My foot was dangling off the side of the cart," Troidle, 35, said in a statement released today. "It jumped up and bit me. The fangs went through my tennis shoe."

The snake was killed by a shovel. It was about 18 inches long, and authorities say it was a timber rattlesnake.

In the second incident, Zachary Booth found a 7-inch pygmy rattlesnake in his garage, Darnall said. Booth was using a sandal to push the snake out of the garage when the reptile lunged at his hand.
Booth said it injected enough venom to blow up his left hand like a balloon.

"It was so small, I didn't think it could hurt me," Booth, 20, said. "It showed no aggression at all until that moment when it struck my hand. I was trying not to hurt it and this is what I got."

Both men were taken to the UCH emergency room Sunday. They each received six vials of antivenin and remain this morning in the hospital's intensive care unit.

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