A man was bitten by a Northern Pacific rattlesnake (the snake was originally identified as a Western Diamondback rattlesnake, but that species is not found near Yosemite) just after his 13th birthday.
He was located on a trail in a hiking area near Yosemite National Park, California. The bite occurred when he was sitting on a small boulder at a distance of 4.5 miles from the trailhead with his cabin group at camp. He had his arms dangling at his side, and a 5 foot long rattlesnake bit him in the middle of his left palm.
From this point, an amazing rescue took place, taking 4 hours to transport him the 4.5 miles to the trailhead. The camp director had previously called the hospital, and a helicopter was waiting at the trailhead. During the 30 minute helicopter ride he was going in and out of consciousness, having trouble keeping his eyes open. They arrived at the Modesto, CA hospital, where the doctor in the emergency room decided that his case was too severe to treat at that medical center. He told him this, which was the last thing he heard before going unconscious.
Although he was unconscious for approximately the next 24 hours, he have heard about the following events from his parents.
He was taken from the Modesto hospital to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the trauma center for Northern California. His snake bite was determined to be too severe for Modesto to deal with. At the UC Davis hospital he underwent a fasciotomy, which involved the doctors cutting open his arm from the palm up to about the middle of his biceps. This was to relieve the extreme pressure that had built up in his arm from the rattlesnake venom, making his arm as hard as a rock until the fasciotomy.
He spent the next 35 days in the UC Davis hospital, had 8 surgeries performed for cleaning out the dead tissue from his arm, and finally had a skin graft from his leg to close up his arm, which had remained open for 30 days after the fasciotomy until the skin graft surgery. That is 10 surgeries in total at UC Davis.
He was released from the hospital, had 4 months of intense physical therapy, and flew to Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina for a follow-up surgery. This was a vascular flap surgery, during which they took a chunk of skin and muscle from his back, attached its blood vessels to the ones in his arm using microsurgery, and then stitched it to his arm. Although 2 emergency surgeries were required within 24 hours on account of blood loss, the vascular flap was a success, and after 6 more months of physical therapy, his hand had had a significant improvement in mobility from when he left UC Davis and could move each finger only 2-3 millimeters.
His hand now has fully mobility and is about 80% as strong as it was before, thanks to his Dad and he resuming their rock climbing after a 1 year break due to the lack of strength in his left hand. He use it for about 90% of the things he used to do with his left hand (he was right handed). 13 surgeries, $700,000 worth of helicopter flights, surgeries, and hospital stays, and 20 months later, he was very happy with the outcome of this experience and his good fortune of getting through all this without any significant loss.
Visit
13above For More Fun
Images of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, each made with approximately 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes, are photographed using an electron microscope by University of Michigan Mechanical Engineering Department in this image released to Reuters November 10, 2008. The image, based on an original drawing by Shepard Fairey, is just wider than 500 microns and is made of approximately 150 million tiny carbon nanotubes, which is about the number of Americans who voted on November 4, according to John Hart at University of Michigan.
Squid Suckers, winner of Honorable Mention in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Awards. Loligo pealei squids have eight arms and two tentacles, all of which are coated with suction-cups, lined with fangs composed of chitin. These tiny suckers, whose diameters are around 400 microns, ultimately allow the half-meter-long squid to get a solid grip on its environment.
Electron micrograph close-up of a weevil (Curculionidae family) - its snout is just over 100 microns wide.
Microalgae seen under the microscope: Carbondioxide-feeders in the ocean.
Pollen from a variety of common plants: sunflower, morning glory, hollyhock, lily, primrose and caster bean. The largest one at center is nearly 100 microns wide.
Winner of an Honorable Mention in Illustration in the 2008 International Science and Engineering Visualization Awards, this is a rendered 3D image of a melanoma cell using data obtained using ion abrasion scanning electron microscopy, a novel approach for imaging mammalian cells at nanometer resolution.
Scanning electron microscope image of Juglans nigra (Black Walnut tree) lower leaf surface, showing a variety of trichomes.
Scanning electron microscope image of the stigma of a Penta lanceolata flower, approximately 140 microns wide.
Brain cells of a laboratory mouse are shown glowing with multicolor fluorescent proteins at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The Nobel prize in chemistry was awarded to two Americans and a U.S.-based Japanese scientist for research on a glowing jellyfish protein that revolutionized the ability to study disease and normal development in living organisms.
At a magnification of 94X, this is a scanning electron micrograph view of the distal clawed tip of an adult figeater beetle's leg. The insect leg is comprised of a variable number of segments, incliuding the pretarsus, seen here with a claw and spiked empodium.
Scanning electron microscope image of an ant. Its eye is approximately 300 microns wide.
At a magnification of 765X, this scanning electron micrograph reveals morphologic details found at the tip of this adult figeater beetle's maxillary galea, which due to its shape, was given this Latin name for "helmet". The galea is located just medial to another, more prominent maxillary appendage, the palpus. Note the concave configuration at the distal tip of the galea, and how there are numerous pointed protuberances inside this concavity, which are most probably sensorial in nature.
This scanning electron micrograph shows the "scape", or the first segment of an unidentified mosquito's left antenna magnified 500X. Note that the central region of the scape is concave, where the second segment of the antenna, known as the "pedicle" will interlock. The grape-like ommatidia surrounding the scape are the functional units of its compound eyes.
This image is of a schistosome parasite. It enters the body through the skin of persons coming in contact with infested waters. The adult worm lives in the veins of its host. The parasite is magnified x256 in this photograph.
Scanning electron microscope image of a pyralidae moth, a side view of its head and curled proboscis. Its eye is about 800 microns wide.
