An animal lover in Connecticut was attacked by a snake and nearly lost his life while caring for the reptile.
Joseph Ricciardella, 45, was bitten Sunday night while trying to get a rattlesnake off the road to safety on his way to Torrington.
A father of one was driving home when he saw a snake in the middle of the road and stopped to help the slithering reptile, but when he put his spare shirt over the rattlesnake’s head and lifted it up, the terrifying animal bit his hand. WFSB reported.
He immediately called his ex-girlfriend, Brittany Hillmeyer, with whom he has a 4-year-old daughter, and she initially thought he was just joking, until the venom began to affect the way he spoke.
“It got to the point where he really couldn’t speak,” Hillmeyer told the station. “I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was like trying to talk to someone with marbles in their mouth.”
Hillmeyer said Ricciardella, a landscaping professional, drove himself to a nearby hospital and was then flown by helicopter to Hartford Hospital, where he was given a dose of anti-venom.
Before that, his respiratory system had failed and he went into cardiac arrest, WFSB reported.
Her father is slowly recovering from the horrific experience but remains in hospital.
“The doctor said the swelling seems to have gone down a little bit today,” Hillmeyer said. He told CT Insider on tuesday.
“We’ve tapered off his sedation so he was awake this morning, able to nod off and even held his hand while speaking to the doctor,” she added.
“They put him under anesthesia again but said the intubation tube might be removed soon and we just had to wait for the anesthesiologist to check the swelling in his throat.”
Ricciardella’s loved ones say he always had an extraordinary love for animals.
He grew up in Waterbury and upstate New York and as a boy he would often catch snakes with his older brother, Robert, his brother told the newspaper.
He also left an injured bat he found in his home alone until it fully recovered.
Connecticut is home to two venomous snakes – American rattlesnakes and copperheads – but according to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, these snakes will only bite if they feel threatened or handled.
