Teen survives bites from 6 rattlesnakes

A California teenager who was bitten by six rattlesnakes in Jamul is expected to make a full recovery, doctors say. Vera Oliphant, an 11th grader as Chaparral High School, was visiting her uncle on Oct. 2 when she climbed a hill trying to find cell phone reception, KGTV, San Diego, reported. "I felt the tip of my foot roll off something and I looked down and six rattlesnakes were latched onto my foot," Oliphant said Friday. It was a mother rattlesnake and five babies. "The pain: On a scale of one to ten it was like a 45," she said. "It felt like it was on fire and like I had a bunch of tiny needles going into me." Her uncle rushed her to the hospital, where she collapsed. "It took 24 vials of anti-venom to neutralize all the poison that went in me," she said. Doctors told Oliphant to expect numbness for a while, but that she would recover and will be able to return to school this week.