Toddler bitten by a rattlesnake hidden underneath Amazon package

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Set us as preferred A 3-year-old girl’s joy at picking up an Amazon package addressed to her at the family’s rural Santa Clarita home turned to terror last week when she picked it up and became the latest Californian to be bit by a rattlesnake.On July 13, an Amazon package was delivered to the Barajas’ family home for 3-year-old Addy Barajas.According to a GoFundMe page, when Addy saw the package, she ran to it, excited to open the gift.“Tragically, a southern pacific rattlesnake was hiding under the brown padded envelope and bit Addy’s left hand,” the family wrote on the fundraising page.After she was bit, Addy’s mother rushed her to a nearby grocery store parking lot, where they met an ambulance that transported the child to a local hospital, the child’s father, Manuel, told KTLA.At the hospital Addy was given a dose of antivenom then transferred to another medical facility that had a pediatric intensive care unit.

There, she received two additional doses of antivenom over two days, according to the GoFundMe, which will help cover the costs of Addy’s treatment and the family’s lost income from Manuel missing work.The girl is expected to survive.The incident was the latest in what is proving to be a remarkably busy year for rattlesnake bites.Experts say unseasonably warm weather patterns at the start of the year signaled to the serpents that they could leave their winter retreats in search of food and mates, increasing the odds of run-ins with people earlier in the year.Rattlesnake season is usually April to October, with California on average reporting between 290 and 390 bites annually, according to the California Poison Control System.But halfway through this year, there have already been 277 bites reported in California, along with multiple deaths.

Rais Vohra, medical director of the state poison cont...