Snake bite victim first refuses to put down his fishing pole

Jennifer Parker said she credits God and the prayer line she requested for helping turn a possible tragic situation into an inconvenience when her 15-year old son was bitten by a poisonous snake Sunday.

Brodie James, who will be a sophomore at Flomaton High School this year, escaped serious injury after his mother described a 'dry bite' by a snake, meaning the entire fangs of the snake didn't penetrate deep into his foot.

Mrs. Parker said Brodie was near their house off Jordan Road fishing when he called her.

"He said 'Mama, something bit me, I'm stinging and my foot is swelling up'," Mrs. Parker said. "I told him to get home and he said 'but I'm fishing'."

Parker said Brodie came straight back to the house and she could see the two fang marks and one was still bleeding. She said Brodie was wearing Crocks and the bite was on the top of his foot.

"I didn't want to panic, but I knew he was allergic to insects so I gave him some Benadryl," she said.

Instead of dialing 911, Parker said she drove her son to the Flomaton Fire Station and had called ahead. By time they arrived, she said her son's foot was twice its normal size.

She was met in the parking lot by EMTs from MedStar.

"I asked them how much time I had because I was headed to Sacred Heart," she said.

She said the EMTs checked his vitals and told him she didn't have time to drive him to Pensacola, but LifeFlight could get him there in 15 minutes.

"He was getting white in the face," Parker added.

Brodie was transported by ambulance from the fire station, with Parker following in her car, to Little Escambia Baptist Church to meet the helicopter.

"On my way to the church, I called people to start a prayer line," Parker said.

She said inside the ambulance, Brodie was hooked up to IVs and his vital signs began to improve. She added that weather had delayed LifeFlight and that he would be taken to Sacred Heart by ambulance in what she was told a 'silent ride'.

"When his vitals improved they told me they would take him to Sacred Heart without lights and sirens," she said.

She said the she followed the ambulance to the hospital by herself.

"As long as the lights didn't just suddenly come on on that ambulance, I was fine," she said.

The ambulance's emergency lights never came on.

Parker said Brodie was kept for several hours at the hospital and that's when she learned about the 'dry bite' of the poisonous snake. His blood work continued to improve and about midnight they drove home.

"Prayer did that," Parker said. "It was a God thing."

She said while in the emergency room she joked with Brodie that it must have been the Crocks that scared the snake away.

"I can't say enough about the people at MedStar," she said. "They were fantastic."