Local News | San Diego toddler’s backyard snake bite bills…
His mother, Lindsay Pfeffer, was a few feet away when Brigland made a noise and came running from the stone firepit, holding his right hand. She had just noticed a pinprick of blood between his thumb and forefinger when her older son called out, “Snake!”
Antivenom, an antibody therapy that disables certain toxins, is administered via an intravenous line, directly into the bloodstream. But emergency room staffers struggled to insert the IV.
“They had so many people in that room trying his head, his neck, his feet, his arms — like, everything to find a vein,” his mother said.
Still unable to start the antivenom, a doctor asked for her permission to try drastic measures. “Just get something going,” she recalled pleading.
It worked. Using a procedure that delivers medicine into the bone marrow, the medical team gave Brigland a starting dose of the antivenom Anavip. Later that day, he was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, where he received more Anavip. The swelling that had spread to his armpit slowly decreased. A couple of days later, he left the hospital with his grateful parents.
