Ree Lawson was having a quiet day in late July at her home in Myrtle Beach,South Carolina, when her life was upended by a sudden, violent encounter with nature. Beneath the jasmine vines at her property, there was a copperhead snake, and before Lawson knew it, the snake bit her hand.
Lawson plays bass for a local band called The Goofy Footers, so her first concern was that she might lose her hand. And things only got worse from there. According to People, Lawson said the bite was immediate and agonizing. “Kind of like I’ve been shot,” said Lawson.
She says she was terrified, but her husband knew that they had to act quickly before the situation got worse. The two then began a frantic race against the clock that exposed a startling gap in local emergency medical preparedness.
They were met with horror
Their first stop was a nearby urgent care clinic, which made sense if their intention was to get the quickest emergency care possible. The staff almost immediately informed them that their facility was unequipped to handle venomous snake bites. Lawson was then told she needed to go to a hospital emergency room right away…