McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A high school coach emptying his luggage after a team trip to South Carolina was bitten by a small rattlesnake that had somehow gotten into his bag. Andy Bacas was released Tuesday after an overnight hospital stay.
Bacas, a rowing coach at Yorktown High School in Arlington, told authorities he felt a sharp pain on his hand Monday when he reached into his luggage after returning from the road trip. He then saw the nearly foot-long snake and slammed the suitcase shut.
Fire and rescue workers took the suitcase outside, opened it and blasted the snake, a juvenile canebrake rattler, with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. The chemical froze the animal to death.
Bacas' son, Peter, said the luggage had been left open on a porch during the trip. Bob Myers, director of the American International Rattlesnake Museum in New Mexico, said it's conceivable that a snake would crawl into luggage seeking warmth or shelter.
Venom from a canebrake rattlesnake can be particularly harmful, but a young snake is not usually large enough to deliver enough to be lethal, Myers said. Adult canebrakes can grow to 6 feet.
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