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California toddler’s backyard snake snake bite bills totaled $297,461


This spring, Brigland Pfeffer was bitten by a rattlesnake while playing in his San Diego backyard. After problems administering a starting dose of antivenom, emergency room staffers found a way that worked and stabilized the 2-year-old. He received 30 total vials of the antivenom Anavip. (Ariana Drehsler for KFF Health News)

This spring, a few days after his 2nd birthday, Brigland Pfeffer was playing with his siblings in their San Diego backyard.

His mother, Lindsay Pfeffer, was a few feet away when Brigland made a noise and came running from the stone firepit, holding his right hand. She had just noticed a pinprick of blood between his thumb and forefinger when her older son called out, “Snake!”

“I saw a small rattlesnake coiled up by the firepit,” she said.

Lindsay called 911, and an ambulance took Brigland to Palomar Medical Center Escondido.

When they arrived, he was in bad shape. His hand was swollen and purple.

This spring, Brigland Pfeffer was bitten by a rattlesnake while playing in his San Diego backyard. After problems administering a starting dose of antivenom, emergency room staffers found a way that worked and stabilized the 2-year-old. He received 30 total vials of the antivenom Anavip. (Ariana Drehsler for KFF Health News) 

Antivenom, an antibody therapy that disables certain toxins, is administered via an intravenous line, directly into the bloodstream. But emergency room staffers struggled to insert the IV.

“They had so many people in that room trying his head, his neck, his feet, his arms — like, everything to find a vein,” his mother said.

Still unable to start the antivenom, a doctor asked for her permission to try drastic measures. “Just get something going,” she recalled pleading.

It worked. Using a procedure that delivers medicine into the bone marrow, the medical team gave Brigland a starting dose of the antivenom Anavip. Later that day, he was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, where he received more Anavip. The swelling that had spread to his armpit slowly decreased. A couple of days later, he left the hospital with his grateful parents.

Then the bills came. The Final Bill: $297,461, which included two ambulance rides, an emergency room visit, and a couple of days in pediatric intensive care. Antivenom alone accounts for $213,278 of the total bill.

The High Cost of Antivenom

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates venomous snakes bite 7,000 to 8,000 people in the United States every year. About five people die. That number would be higher, the agency says, if not for medical treatment.

Many snakebites happen far from medical care, and not all emergency rooms keep costly antivenom in stock, which can add big ambulance bills to already expensive care.

It often takes more than a dozen vials, typically costing thousands per vial, to treat a snakebite. The median number per patient is 18 vials, said Michelle Ruha, an emergency room doctor in Arizona and former president of the American College of Medical Toxicology.

Manufacturing costs alone do not explain the high price. The process remains fundamentally the same as when antivenom was developed more than a century ago. Venomous creatures are milked, then a small, non-harmful amount of toxin is injected into animals like horses or sheep. Antibodies are extracted from their blood and processed to make antivenom.

Brigland Pfeffer during his hospital stay, after he …read more

Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment

      

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