Severed rattlesnake head bites Texas man, nearly kills him

Blacktail rattlesnake found near Lechuguilla Springs in New Mexico. (Jake Holmes)

A Texas man is recovering after he claims the head of a rattlesnake bit him — moments after he had just cut it off.

Jennifer Sutcliffe's husband was reportedly bitten by the beheaded snake on May 27 at his home near Lake Corpus Christi.

Sutcliffe told KIII-TV the two were doing yard work when she came across the four-foot rattlesnake. She said her husband used a shovel to behead the snake, but when he went to dispose of it, it bit him.

The snake, Sutcliffe said, "released all its venom into him at that point" because it no longer had a body, and her husband reportedly began immediately experiencing seizures and internal bleeding, and lost his vision.

The man was transported via helicopter to a hospital, where doctors said there was a chance he wouldn't make it.

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"A normal person who is going to get bit is going to get two to four doses of antivenom," Sutcliffe told the news station. "He had to have 26 doses."

Her husband is now in stable condition but is suffering from weak kidney functions, Sutcliffe said.

While it's rare to die after being bitten by a snake, roughly one to two people die each year in Texas as a result of the venom, according to the state's Parks & Wildlife Department.