It's every parent's worst nightmare. A toddler ended up needing 40 vials of antivenom after being bitten by a rattlesnake.
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The incident happened in Colorado on Memorial Day. Speaking with People, Colleen and Brett Robertson revealed that they were visiting Overton Park. Colleen decided to explore the area outside their rental with their 2-year-old daughter Quinn.
But after walking a couple of hundred feet, she heard her daughter cry out.
"I did not hear the rattle until I picked Quinn up, and then I saw it," she said. Colleen realized the rattlesnake had bitten her daughter. Running back to the house, the parents called for help.
"It was the scariest feeling," Brett said. "Just a couple of minutes before, she was running around and jumping. And then she's slowly just becoming lethargic in your arms, and it was so crushing to experience that."
Rattlesnake Bite
The hospital was 45 minutes away. The toddler quickly succumbed to the rattlesnake bite while waiting for help. Colleen started doing CPR after Quinn fell unconscious.
"We were just trying to hold on to whatever as a hope and keep her alive until [paramedics] got there," Colleen explained. "They said the best chance for her [survival] was a five-to-ten-minute flight in the helicopter."
It took hours to stabilize the toddler after the snake bite. She needed more than 30 vials of antivenom and a blood transfusion. She also ended up on a ventilator in the ICU as well.
"We were at a point where we were just down on our knees and all of our friends and family across the world were just praying for this little girl," Colleen says.
After days, eventually the toddler worke up from the rattlesnake bite.
"It was the best feeling I've ever had," Colleen says. "Being able to hold her again was truly a miraculous thing."
Following the hospital stay, the toddler still has a long road ahead for recovery.
