White Springs — An 11-year-old Suwannee County girl was bitten by a rattlesnake at the Wild Azalea Festival on Saturday, March 16, and is now at home recovering after a short stay in the hospital.

Chloe Ogle was bitten on the right ring finger between her fingernail and knuckle by a dusky pygmy rattlesnake on Saturday afternoon at about 1:15 p.m. near the entertainment stage, according to Park Manager of the Nature and Tourism Center Bob Toothaker.

Ogle and her sister Lindsey were manning their College Fund Store food concession trailer, which was set up near the parking lot of the Nature and Tourism Center when Ogle said she spotted a snake on the ground underneath a man’s chair. The man was sitting right next to their concession stand and Ogle said he was eating cotton candy and popcorn.

“The guy was sitting in the shade and the snake went under his chair,” she said. “I guess he wanted the food.”

Ogle said she got out of the cart and was just a few feet away from the snake. She also said the guy was unaware the snake was underneath his chair. She said she later sat down in the grass and had her hand on the ground behind her, thinking the snake had already slithered away.

“I leaned back to talk to my sister and the snake bit me,” she said. “It didn’t sting. It hurt.”

Chloe said she got back in the cart and soon afterward help was on the way from local police officers stationed nearby.

“They called an ambulance because the snake was venomous and poisonous,” Ogle said. “The ambulance came, they put me in there and put a needle in me. Once we got to Lake City hospital I got into a helicopter and flew to Gainesville.”

At her home Tuesday, Chloe said she spent a day in ICU and then was transferred to a regular hospital room.

“They let me play video games,” she said.

By Monday afternoon she was back home. Her fingers and lower arm are still a little swollen and bruised, but the pain has greatly subsided. She still has the purple markings on her right arm where medical personnel were monitoring the spread of the venom. Ogle said the venom traveled about halfway up her arm between her wrist and elbow.

“It still hurts a little,” she said.

When asked what she learned from the experience, Ogle said, “If you see a snake, don’t touch it.”

Once park officials were notified the girl had been bitten, Toothaker said, she was immediately taken over to the first aid station where local medical personnel provided initial first aid. Meanwhile, Hamilton County EMT’s were summoned to the scene and the patient was later airlifted from Lake City to Shands UF Gainesville for further treatment, according to Hamilton County Emergency Management Director Henry Land.

Land said they originally were going to transport her to Lake City Medical Center, however, due to the nature of the injury and the potential need for pediatric intensive care services, the decision was made to have her flown to Shands UF in Gainesville.

“It was an unfortunate incident and very rare for something like this to happen,” said Toothaker.

In the 12 years Toothaker has worked in the parks business all over the state of Florida, he said he has encountered a lot of snakes in the woods during his duties, but this is the first time he has ever heard of someone getting bitten by one.

Toothaker suggested that perhaps all the loud music and all the people in the area on one of the first warm days of the year is probably what got the snake riled up enough to bite a human. The young girl, he said, may also have mistaken the colorful snake for a twig and tried to pick it up, as wild animals tend to blend in with the environment.

Dusky pygmy rattlers, Toothaker said, are very colorful snakes with reds, oranges, grays and blacks, and ivory colored tails that hold their rattlers. They are typically about 12-14 inches in length. Because the snakes are small, Toothaker said, they don’t carry as much venom as larger snakes.

The snake was immediately caught by Toothaker, who said it was coiled up on the ground near a gentleman who was sitting in a chair underneath a tree. Toothaker released the rattler back into the wild, well away from where the crowds were gathered.

“We feel bad for the girl,” said Toothaker. “Her health and welfare was our main concern.”

Both Ogle and her grandfather said they heard two other children were bitten, but a phone call to Public Information Officer Jennifer Diaz from the Florida Park Service stated, “There were no other incidents to our knowledge.”