Texas teen’s cheer routine ends with a hospital trip. Video revealed a venomous culprit
A teenage cheerleader in Texas didn’t know what caused her foot to swell and turn purple, but a video of her tumbling routine provided all the clues.
The Houston-area high school cheerleader was about to practice a routine in her backyard last week when she took one of her shoes off. After placing her bare foot on the mat, she immediately felt pain, a video her mother posted on Facebook shows.
“Something just started hurting,” Paris Montgomery told KTRK. “I didn’t know it was a snake.”
Montgomery told the station she thought she stepped on a stick or maybe got bit by a spider or scorpion.
Her mother, Tracy Montgomery, put baking soda on the wound, thinking a bee had stung her, accordingto KTRK.
But the girl’s foot “got worse really quick” and began to swell more and turn purple, KRIV reported. So the family called for an ambulance.
They realized the culprit when they were at the hospital reviewing video Paris Montgomery took of her routine.
“When we were trying to tell the doctor what happened. (Paris) said, ‘I have it on video’ and that’s when we zoomed it in and saw it was a snakebite,” the mother told KRIV. “Even when she saw it, she said, ‘There’s no way a snake bit me and I didn’t know it.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s on video.’”
Tracy Montgomery said on Facebook the snake was most likely a copperhead.
Copperheads cause more venomous bites than any other snake species in the United States, according to National Geographic. Their bites are not often deadly, but their venom can break down blood cells, National Geographic said.
The teen received anti-venom treatment and stayed multiple nights at Woodlands Texas Children’s Hospital, her mother wrote. Even after being released from the hospital May 16, her foot was still swollen and sore, but it had improved greatly, Tracy Montgomery said.
“Paris is in her happy place now at home with her animal friends,” the mom wrote. “Not sure how she will feel about her pet snake now though lol.”