Snake bite won't deter Philo eighth-grader Maiah Bell

ZANESVILLE — Although a literal entanglement with a poisonous snake left her hospitalized for days, Maiah Bell doesn't seem to have developed a fear of the legless reptiles.

Days after a copperhead bit her right leg, the 13-year-old eighth-grader at Philo Junior High School was pranking her toxicologist; the stunt involved a store-bought toy snake placed strategically under her bed covers where an unsuspecting doctor would check on her bite.

And she's not shying away from the nature trails, where she was bitten by the snake while walking with her friends Saturday night.

"(Snakes) don't bother me. They're out there. You can't do anything about it," Bell said Tuesday from her bed at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

"I'm gonna go right back out there as soon as I can.

The odds are in her favor.

"You are more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a venomous snake," wildlife specialist Nicole Hafter said in a column published in Monday's Times Recorder.

And you know what they say about lightning striking twice.

That Hafer's column was published Monday was a mere coincidence, although it did explain which snakes inhabit Ohio and Muskingum County.

Copperheads are the only type of poisonous snake ever documented in Muskingum County, according to that column written by Hafer, with the Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District.

Although Hafer could not be reached for further comment, her column noted that venomous snakes can be identified by elliptical eyes and a triangular shaped head that houses venom pits.

The copperhead in particular has hourglass-shaped bands across its body.

But Bell said she had no time to identify, or even see, the poisonous animal.

She stepped on the copperhead while walking with her friends Saturday night in a wooded area along a creek. With the beam of a flashlight lighting the way, the three girls were trying to get back home before dark settled over the countryside.

The copperhead wrapped around and bit Bell in her right calf.

"It felt like briars when it bit my leg, but when I looked down, it was squirming like a worm," said Bell, who added the bite "wasn't painful at all."

She made the remaining half-mile trek to her friend's home, which was south of Zanesville off Ohio 555.

It was her friend Ariel Henderson's quick thinking that may have saved the day. Henderson, 14, took Bell's belt and used it as a tourniquet to prevent the venom from coursing too far.

Asked how she knew to do that, Henderson said: "I watch a lot of Animal Planet."

Henderson then went back to get a picture of the snake to show doctors before Bell went to the emergency room at Genesis Hospital.

A squad transported her later that night to the Columbus hospital, where she has been since.

Three doses of anti-venom, administered in an IV, have helped Bell to recover from the bite, which caused leg swelling, pain and nausea.

Henderson rallied many Philo students to wear blue in support of Bell, her best friend since Henderson was in first grade.

"I was super happy," with the response, said Henderson, a freshman at Philo High School. "I just wanted to remind her that it wasn't just us who was there for her, it was everybody."

Bell began physical therapy Tuesday with hopes of leaving the hospital any day.

"I was just amazed at what my friends would do for me," she said. "Some of the people that I don't even talk to wore blue and I was just like, 'Wow they must really have a concern for me.'"

elagatta@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

740-450-6753

Twitter: @EricLagatta