Man who stuck rattlesnake in mouth was making a point Posted by The Oregonian September 18, 2007 15:36PM Categories: Portland, Top Stories In early August, snake collector Matt Wilkinson of Southeast Portland grabbed a 20-inch rattler off the highway near Maupin in Central Oregon.

Three weeks later, in a show of daring for an ex-girlfriend, Wilkinson stuck the snake in his mouth. He was near death with a tongue swollen to the point it spilled out of his mouth and blocked his throat when emergency room and trauma surgeons at OHSU saved his life.

The 23-year-old became a celebrity of sorts today when broadcast and cable news channels all over the country wondered at his story. On the phone, still out of sorts with sore muscles and nerves from the venom, he sounded circumspect.

Matt. Dude. How?

"You can assume alcohol was involved," he said. Actually, not just beer. Something he chose to describe as a "mixture of stupid stuff."

Friends were over for a barbecue. A pit was being readied for a backyard bonfire. He himself had downed a six-pack. An ex-girlfriend at the party asked him for a beer. He handed her one, not realizing said snake was also in his hand.

"She said 'get that thing out of my face," Wilkinson said. "I told her it was a nice snake. Nothing can happen. Watch."

He stuck the snake in his mouth. "It got ahold of my tongue." Wilkinson knew he had been bitten. In pain and finding it hard to breathe, he quickly arranged to be driven to the hospital, his ex-girlfriend behind the wheel. Why her? "She was the only one sober," Wilkinson said.

They made it about two blocks from his home near Southeast 82nd and Woodstock and Wilkinson knew they were in big trouble. They spotted a cop and stopped to ask for help. That's the last thing he remembers before waking up at Oregon Health & Sciences University.

Trauma surgeon Dr. Richard Mullins was in the OHSU cafeteria when his beeper went off. The message was to get to the ER right away. Physicians there were unable to get a breathing tube down Wilkinson's throat.

What Mullins saw was an engorged tongue sticking out his mouth. Snake venom thins the blood and Wilkinson was also bleeding quite noticeably from the bite wounds. "Ninety-nine percent of the time" ER physicians can handle such a case, Mullins said. Not this time, which is why he was paged.

He quickly cut a hole in Wilkinson's neck to insert the breathing tube. Physicians under consultation from Dr. Zane Horowitz of the OHSU Poison Control Center then started giving Wilkinson antivenin.

They moved Wilkinson to the intensive care unit, where he was kept heavily sedated for several days until the swelling went down. "Then we let him wake up," Mullins said.

As dramatic a medical procedure as this sounds, Mullins said the snake bite is not the worst he has seen for blocked air passages.

Before seat belt laws, horribly disfigured motorists who had gone through windshields would be brought into the ER. He has treated botched suicides where the bullet went through the neck. The worst memory for him was a patient who rear-ended another vehicle and ended up with severe facial burns from hot radiator fluid.

Horowitz said Wilkinson is one of about 50 people a year seen by the Poison Control Center who've been bitten by rattlers or other poisonous snakes. Most of them were hit on the legs while hiking in Eastern Oregon. Some got zapped while reaching under a rock or working on their properties, he said.

Very few have been bitten on the tongue.

Wilkinson, who works in concrete construction, has been unable to return to work. His muscles and nerves are out of whack from the venom, and possibly lack of oxygen. He's getting a CAT scan Friday.

Friends at work that he's spoken with are pretty blunt. "They were like, what the heck were you thinking," Wilkinson said. The answer?

"It's my own stupidity."

Submitted on 09/18/2007

Submitted by: Alan Wiebe
Reference: Posted by The Oregonian September 18, 2007 15:36PM

Copyright © 2007 DarwinAwards.com

Chip said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
Still more about the snake charmer that I have not seen before. Alan, thanks for the additional information. I'll forward this on to Darwin.

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: For Darwin's Eyes
The most detailed account of this tale so far. Thanks, Alan.

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