A hiking trip to the Grand Canyon turned into a nightmare for a Valley woman who was bitten by a snake.
But the snake bite wasn't the problem. It was the antivenom.
Alyson Redmond took a six-day hiking trip to the Grand Canyon with her dad and eight other people. After a seven-mile hike, she felt something prick her toe while her group stopped at Thunder River, Redmond told AZFamily.
Redmond carried on and went to sleep, but noticed that her foot was swollen the next morning. She was taken to a medical center in Flagstaff and doctors there believed that the swelling was caused by a snake bite. Naturally, the doctors gave her an antivenom, but instead of her foot healing, Redmond got worse. Her eyes started swelling and her throat started itching.
"Within the first ten minutes I actually had the reaction. I looked at the nurse and said 'something is wrong' and cause they're wearing the mask you could see her eyes get huge," said Redmond.
Redmond was having a severe allergic reaction to the antivenom because she's allergic to horses. Antivenoms are made by injecting a small amount of venom into an animal like a horse, sheep, or goat, according to the Smithsonian Institute. The animals develop antibodies to the venom, which are taken and made into an antivenom that's safe for humans to use.
What happened to Redmond was incredibly rare because antivenoms contain a very small trace from the animal it was made from. That was enough to send Redmond into anaphylactic shock. She was transported to a Phoenix hospital where she was able to treated for her allergic reaction and receive a different antivenom.
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