SMITHVILLE, Mo. — A woman is recovering Friday after a snake bit her in her own front yard last weekend.
The woman was out cutting her grass, focusing on the tall grass around her trees.
She said she didn’t see anything, but suddenly felt the worst sting of her life.
“I was leaning down and I felt something. I looked down and it slithered back into a hole,” said Kathy Buda of Smithville, Mo.
She said her lawnmower was running, but her neighbors came running when they heard her screams.
Buda said she knew she needed to find out what kind of snake it was, but couldn’t identify it when she looked on the internet for pictures.
“Dark gray. It did have some banding on it. I think it was about that thick but it did slither back into a hole,” Buda remembered.
The heat is leading to more snake bites. The University of Kansas Hospital reports that there have been a total of 37 snake bites reported in the metro and in the state of Kansas. Thirty of those came from venomous snakes.
Buda went to urgent care, but was quickly transported to the hospital and stayed from Sunday until Wednesday.
“Once they did blood work they were able to determine it was venom that was in my system,” she said. “I never expected I would get bitten by a poisonous snake in my own yard.”
Dr. Stephen Thornton, a toxicologists and poison control director with The University of Kansas Hospital says if you are bitten by a snake, you need to go to the hospital immediately.
“Stay calm. Get yourself to the hospital, whether it’s someone driving you or by calling 911 and then tell them yeah, I think I was bit by a snake,” said Dr. Thornton.
According to The University of Kansas Hospital, in Kansas and Missouri, the same anti-venom is used to treat all venomous snake bites.
Watch FOX 4 Brad Underwood’s report at 5:30 p.m. to see more pictures of Buda’s bite, and find out what snake bite experts say about venom.
