Copperhead Snakes Bite Two in SE D.C.

In the last seven days, two different people have been bitten by poisonous copperhead snakes in Southeast Washington, D.C. The circumstances of the incidents, however, are markedly different.

One week ago, Angela Bradford was walking her dog in the Congress Heights neighborhood.

"Something brushed my shoe, my foot," explained Bradford. "And I just bent down to see what it was, and that's when [a snake] just jumped up and bit me in the finger."

The 48-year-old woman's hand started swelling immediately. Knowing that physicians might want to know the species of snake, she snapped a quick photo of the serpent with her cell phone, and then drove to the hospital.

Doctors at United Medical Center determined that the snake was a poisonous copperhead, and began anti-venom therapy. Angela Bradford spent two miserable nights in the hospital, and, even now, a week later, she feels weak and dizzy.

On Wednesday at 10:30 in the morning, there was another encounter with a copperhead snake. A 31-year-old man walking near Martin Luther King Ave. in SE Washington was bitten on the hand. He told arriving firefighters and paramedics that he had just purchased a non-poisonous python which had bitten him.

Seeing huge, immediate swelling in the man's hand, firefighters had their doubts, so they captured the snake in a cardboard box and called animal control. Animal control and the health department have determined the snake is also a copperhead.

The man was transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Officials at animal control are still deciding what to do with the snake.

Copperheads are indigenous to much of North America, including Maryland and Virginia.