Rattlesnake ‘selfie’ lands man $153,000 hospital bill

A San Diego man, Todd Fassler, was nearly killed when he tried to take a selfie with a rattlesnake that he picked up from some brush. On a list of animals that you shouldn’t take a selfie with, we would imagine that the rattlesnake would be high up on that list.

“He paralyzed my body …” The animal literally paralysed my whole body. “My tongue was sticking out, my eyes were to the side”, Fassler told KGTV.

Interestingly, Fassler also owned a pet rattlesnake, but decided to set the snake free after his bite incident. Anti-venom apparently runs at least $2,000 per vial, and doctors depleted the stash of two different local hospitals in order to save Fassler’s life, ABC 10 reports.

Assuming Fassler has insurance, it’s likely that this inflated bill is not representative of the actual cost to him. Fassler recently released the snake into the wild. That is the $153,161.25 hospital bill he incurred for a five-day stay. About 100 rattlesnake bites are reported in the state of California annually.

Now, the story and photo of the medical bill have gone viral on several sites. Are the costs justifiable or extreme?