Colorado boy falls off bike, lands on rattlesnake that bites him

An 11-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after he fell off his mountain bike and landed right on top of a rattlesnake, which then dug its fangs into his chest.

Ethan Vogel and his father, Zach Vogel, were going for an evening ride on the trails of North Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado on June 6, when the boy clipped a boulder and tumbled off his bike about 90 minutes into their trek.

He landed on a 30-plus inch prairie rattlesnake beside the trail that bit him in the torso near his armpit. 

Ethan’s father ditched his bike and raced over to his stunned son, who had bloodstains on his shirt.

When he checked out the wound, he saw two puncture wounds.

The boy quickly started to lose feeling in his face and hands.

“I only saw the snake when I got back up. I was hoping it was a thorn, then we heard the rattle after it bit me,” Ethan said.

“I was scared when I realized it had bitten me and then I couldn’t feel my face or my hands. Dad kept me calm, it was very helpful.”

The 41-year-old father cradled Ethan’s head while he called 911.

He said he knew the most important thing was to keep his son’s heart rate low.

“I was as terrified as any parent would be because you just don’t know how much time that they have, I didn’t want to lose him,” the father said.

“There’s other children that have been bitten that have collapsed in minutes and they’ve been unable to resuscitate them,” he continued. “He’s not trained to handle that level of stress and he knows how dangerous snakes are so he was afraid for his life.”

The poison started to kick in fast, and Ethan began throwing up. His heartbeat, while lying down, rose to 165 beats per minute, Vogel said.

“He had a reason to fight and he trusted me. I was just praying to God that nothing bad would happen and that I wasn’t going to lose my son in my arms.”

After a grueling 20 minutes, responders arrived and Ethan was taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Littleton, where he was given antivenom and other medication to stabilize him. He was later transferred to Children’s Hospital Colorado.

“They put him on a 90-minute slow drip,” Vogel said. “We just watched and tried to keep him as comfortable as possible.

“Poison control showed up and they wanted to look at the wound and figure out where the venom was moving to,” he said.

Ethan has since returned home with his brother and sister, and is expected to make a full recovery in about three weeks.

His dad says he’s itching to get back on his bike and ride the trails again.

“We’re not afraid of rattlesnakes, we’re just very aware of them and know the dangers,” Vogel said. “We learned to keep our distance and listen for the sound.”

With Post wires