POISONOUS SNAKE BITES MAN HOURS AFTER HE THOUGHT IT DEAD

There are many myths about snakes:

"They won't die until the sun goes down."

"They can still bite even though they are dead."

"They won't bite if you're in the water with them."

Etc.

"I don't know about some of the myths, but I know they can certainly bite when they're supposed to be dead," says Paul Cotner of Columbia.

Cotner, who was visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dan Cotner last weekend, decided to spend Saturday night at the family's cabin on Castor River.

Shortly after arriving at the cabin, Cotner discovered a copperhead at the woodpile near it.

"Knowing it was a poisonous snake, I didn't want it around the cabin," he said. "I struck it with my ax while it was coiled ready to strike."

The blow to the snake cut it into three pieces. Cotner said he didn't think any more about it.

Later in the day Saturday he went outside to scoop up some wood chips to build a fire. The wood chips were in the same general vicinity of the snake he thought he had killed. The snake struck Cotner on the finger.

"At first I thought it was a bee sting," said Cotner. "I started looking, and all I could see was the snake."

Cotner waved a stick in front of the snake, and it struck at it.

"By this time my finger started swelling, and I knew what had struck me," said Cotner.

After being bitten, Cotner went to a neighbor's house. When a local physician could not be contacted, Cotner returned to Cape Girardeau, where he was treated at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"I brought the snake with me to the hospital to show the type," he said. "Even at the hospital -- and this was some five to six hours after I had hit the snake -- it would still strike when a stick was waved in front of its head.

"I really felt sorry for the snake," said Cotner, "It was only defending itself. I don't normally try to kill a snake if it's in the woods, but I didn't want it too close to the cabin. Other people use the cabin."

Cotner, formerly of Cape Girardeau, has been a dentist at Columbia for about five years.

"I worked with my dad in Cape Girardeau about a year in 1983-84," said the younger Cotner.

"This is not an unusual or isolated happening," said Gary Newcomb, regional staff specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation's regional headquarters at Cape Girardeau. "He probably left too much of the body with the head section of the snake, and it was still alive.

"We have even had reports of a snakebite when only the head of the snake remained," said Newcomb. "We suggest that if people do kill a snake they should bury it."

Newcomb, in response to reports that snakes seem to be more plentiful this year, said he didn't think so.

"What is happening is that with all the floodwaters still around, snakes are heading for higher ground and are more visible" he said.

If thoughts of poisonous snakes make you squeamish, there may be some comfort in statistics that show far more people die of wasp stings or lightning strikes than from snake bites. Figures from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency show that about 50,000 people in the U.S. are bitten by snakes each year, with about 8,000 of the bites by poisonous snakes.

Twelve to 15 people die from poisonous snake bites annually. Twice that many die from wasp stings, and about 100 are killed by lightning, according to the agency's figures.