64 Units of Anti-Venom $42,000...That's One Huge Snake!

While residents in Nye County's small desert communities wait with baited breath for a regional hospital to be built in Pahrump, an Amargosa Valley woman recently experienced a not-so-freakish medical emergency from which she is still recovering - physically as well as financially.

The experience points at the dangers of living in a remote area without benefit of an urban hospital within easy reach and the crucial necessity of taking precautions in the outdoors at a time when emergency medical help can still be hours away.

On the night of Aug. 4, Karen Gilligan, 50, was bitten by a rattlesnake while taking her dog for a walk around her house on 10 acres in Amargosa Valley. It was the beginning of a four-day ordeal that she said has been the most memorable of her life.

This story is NOT for the squeamish..........

www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com...

This was one huge Diamondback Rattlesnake the fang marks on her heel were four to five inches long! This woman is really lucky to be alive today. Finally the Pahrump Regional Hospital will be built. They are leveling the land as we speak and hopefully by next year it will be open. As I understand.... it will only have 25 beds which doesn't seem like enough to me. The population of Pahrump is atleast 35,000. The outlying communities like the Amargosa Valley, Shoshone Ca, Crystal, Beatty and Johnny will also have to depend on Pahrumps Regional Hospital.

Right now if you have a real medical emergency ie- heart attack, snake bite,stroke ect....you are flighted out by Mercy Air helicopter. Just the cost of the helicopter ride is atleast $5,000.00. There's been times since I've been here when the helicopter was unavailable. Sometimes the weather makes it difficult to fly in, but the medical personal have risked their own lives to save others. We have lost several medical personal on board the helicopters due to crashes. We are alive, because of these brave people.