Connecticut man bitten by rare rattlesnake he tried to help ends up in coma

Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man is in the hospital after being bitten by a timber rattlesnake he was trying to help. Joseph Ricciardella saw the snake on a road Sunday and tried to pick it up after throwing a shirt over it. That’s when he was bitten on the hand, according to his former girlfriend, Brittany Hilmeyer. She says it happened somewhere between upstate New York and Ricciardella’s home in Torrington, but it’s not clear exactly where. Hilmeyer says he was brought out of a medically induced coma Tuesday and is recovering. Timber rattlesnakes are rare in the Northeast and are a protected species.