A Town of Marana councilmember is recovering at home after a western diamondback rattlesnake bit him without warning last week.
The incident sent him to the emergency room for a night in intensive care and 20 vials of antivenom.
Patrick Cavanaugh, who has served on the Marana Town Council, was tidying up his side yard in the Marana area on the evening of May 5 when he reached down to move a board and came within striking distance of a roughly two-foot rattlesnake.
As he recounts it, the councilmember said that there was no rattle, no warning and that he felt a bite, followed by immense pain, to the forefinger of his left hand.
“The intensity of that bite was like uranium being injected in my veins,” Cavanaugh said. “The burning, the searing burn and toxicity of that venom was intense.”
Cavanaugh paused long enough to photograph the snake — which he estimated had a three-and-a-half-inch rattle — before rushing inside to tell his wife.
The couple immediately began trying to find the nearest facility equipped to treat a venomous snakebite. An urgent care center they reached told them it didn’t carry antivenom. Calls to two local hospitals also netted little help, as he said the lines disconnected instantly.
“I’m calling them and it’s just automatically hanging up on me,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s so weird. This is an emergency situation.”
Cavanaugh also called Marana Mayor Jon Post to let him know he would miss that evening’s council meeting. His wife eventually reached 911, and the dispatcher directed them to pull over on the side of the road. Paramedics met them and loaded Cavanaugh into an ambulance bound for Banner University Medical Center.
Paramedics removed his wedding ring before transport — a precaution against the severe swelling that was already beginning to spread up his arm.
“They said, ‘Man, you have no idea what’s going to happen next to your hand,’” Cavanaugh said.
At Banner, a team of about a dozen medical staff met the gurney. Cavanaugh received medication and was started on antivenom before being moved to the intensive care unit, where nurses measured the swelling on his arm every hour through the night.
Arizona Poison Control monitored his blood work remotely throughout his stay, tracking platelet counts and other markers that had dropped sharply in response to the venom.
By morning, his bloodwork had returned to acceptable levels and the swelling had begun to stabilize. After pushing for an early discharge, Cavanaugh was released and returned home.
“I reacted well to the antivenom,” he said. “I’m back home, pursuing my day.”
Cavanaugh said he is grateful to the Northwest Fire Department crew, the Banner emergency team and the poison control specialists who coordinated his care.
Moreso, he also wants the experience to serve as a warning to neighbors and the Marana community.
“If you have some boards or some cardboard outside, don’t just pick it up,” he said. “Get something underneath it first. Be aware that there could be a snake there, because I certainly wasn’t.”
He noted that his neighbor has spotted three snakes in his courtyard this year alone, and that in his seven years living in the area he has now seen several rattlesnakes on his property. He also raised a concern that others in the region have echoed: that rattlesnakes may be increasingly striking before sounding their distinctive warning rattle.
“This snake rattled and bit me immediately — instantaneously,” he said. “They’re seemingly evolving to bite you before they warn you.”
Banner University Medical Center treats an estimated 15 to 20 rattlesnake bites per year, according to Cavanaugh, who said emergency staff told him such cases remain relatively rare even in Southern Arizona.