Winder man dies from rattlesnake bite

Associated Press

A Winder man died  after a rattlesnake bit him as he hunted in the woods in east Georgia.

Dick Rupert, 68, was climbing down from a tree stand Saturday morning when the snake bit him on the calf, Oglethorpe County Coroner James Mathews told the Athens Banner-Herald.

Rupert died at Wills Memorial Hospital in Washington about an hour later, Mathews said.

Rupert's 12-year-old grandson, who was hunting with him, tried to drive him back to the road on a four-wheeler, but he passed out and fell off twice, Mathews said.

Rupert's grandson and his son, who was hunting nearby, dragged him to the road, and he was unresponsive when Oglethorpe EMS workers arrived at 7:44 a.m., Mathews told the newspaper.

"The grandson was doing CPR when our crew got there," Mathews told the Banner-Herald. "But Mr. Rupert was already in full cardiac arrest."

John Willson, a snake researcher at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Lab, said the snake was likely a timber rattler. Such bites rarely are deadly, he said.

"Most venomous species in the Southeast, you can recover if you make it to a hospital within two to three hours," Willson said.