Tennessee man dies from poisonous copperhead snake bite

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NASHVILLE, Tennessee | Mon Jan 31, 2011 12:27pm EST

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Police in East Ridge, Tenn., on Monday are investigating the death of a 26-year-old man who was bitten while attempting to determine the sex of a poisonous copperhead snake.

Wade Westbrook was bitten just above the right elbow Saturday night. Firefighters and paramedics were summoned to the scene, where they attempted CPR, but the man was pronounced dead on arrival at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga, East Ridge police spokesman Erik Hopkins said on Monday.

A friend reportedly had taken the snake to Westbrook's house in order to have him determine the sex, and while Westbrook was doing this he was bitten fatally.

"We have a general idea of what occurred, but the investigators are trying to piece it together," Hopkins said. State wildlife officers are also investigating.

He said the death is being treated as an accident. East Ridge is just outside of Chattanooga in the southern part of the state.

The copperhead is a poisonous snake common in the southern United States. A copperhead bite can be extremely painful but is not usually fatal.

(Writing by Tim Ghianni, Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)
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Comments (2)
QuietTempest wrote:
Venomous. The copperhead is a venomous snake, not a poisonous snake.

Jan 31, 2011 9:14pm EST  --  Report as abuse
VWDriver wrote:
This kind of stuff makes me a bit embarrassed to be from Tennessee. A man dies from a Copperhead bite in January. There are no snakes out in January. Were they wanting to pick a gender correct name? Did he work for the TSA? What?

Feb 01, 2011 1:52am EST  --  Report as abuse
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