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On Buffalo River snake bite leads to 3 area teens' 3-hour-long journey to get help
A snake took a bite out of the fun Michael Driscoll of Brandsville and Gerard Dietrich and Ransom Nichols, both of West Plains, were having on their first unsupervised 32-mile canoe trip on the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas. All are 17. It began July 30 and was to have ended this past Saturday.
They set their canoe in the water at Highway 14 in southern Maries County, Ark., and had planned to travel east, then north to Ship's Ferry on the nearby White River. The snake bite Friday changed that plan.
Driscoll said he didn't see the snake but that judging from the mark it left on his foot and the symptoms he had he believes it was a copperhead.
Ahead of them was a canoe trip and car ride that totaled about three hours, some of it on the White River, to get help.
Now, Driscoll says he is doing much better. "There's still pain. The swelling went down and the bruising is much worse, but there's more movement in my toes and ankle. I'm definitely on the road to recovery. The doctor yesterday said he thinks it won't have to require surgery and my circulation looks good. I hope to be walking in less than a week.''
Dietrich's mother, Joan, West Plains, said the boys didn't try to get help when on the Buffalo River because of the remote terrain and high bluffs and made the decision to enter the White River and paddle north toward Mtn. Home, Ark.
Events unfolded 9:30 p.m. Aug. 1, the final night of their adventure, when Driscoll walked into the water to wade. About two steps from the shore on his way in he felt an intense sting on his foot. He jumped out of the water and alerted his friends.
"We really didn't believe him at first. I said, 'Mike, tough,'" Dietrich said.
After they realized he really was in pain they went about collecting their first-aid kit, putting alcohol on the wound and looking at it closely with a flashlight. They saw fang marks.
"I've never liked snakes but now I definitely don't," Driscoll said. "It started swelling immediately and we were at least eight miles upstream from our access point."
In hopes of getting their friend to safety, Dietrich and Nichols grabbed minimal supplies, put Driscoll in a life jacket in the center of the canoe and paddled up the river as fast as they could.
"We didn't know anything about how serious the snake bite was or how far we had to go and that was the most terrifying thing," Dietrich said.
About an hour into the late-night trip Driscoll started to get sick.
"I threw up for two hours. I've never been so sick in my life," he said.
"And I've never seen someone so sick in my life," Dietrich said.
With the night being foggier than most and Nichols being in the front of the canoe, he was the eyes for everyone's safety.
Dietrich said, "I couldn't see anything. I had to totally trust Ransom."
He also said he tried to see more by standing up in the canoe but that rocked it and made Driscoll even more ill.
To add to their troubles a hole had developed in the canoe, gradually letting water in.
Dietrich said he was mentally recording everything that was happening with his sick friend so he could accurately report it when they got to the hospital.
All the while, Driscoll led them in prayer. The boys attend St. Mary's Catholic Church in West Plains together and have since they were children.
"We prayed the St. Michael prayer, Hail Mary, Our Father, Memoare and just asked God to watch over us and get us off the river safely," he said.
He is the son of Cathy and Steve Driscoll, owners of St. Michael's Nursery in Brandsville.
"They all spent a lot of time praising God," Joan Dietrich said.
CRASHING INTO A BOAT DOCK
"Once we got onto the White River it got a lot colder and the fog was much thicker. A flashlight, of course, didn't help and I only had about 15 feet of visibility, but I knew I had to go through it," Nichols said.
Dietrich said, "And they were running six generators out of Lake Bull Shoals, so the water was moving pretty fast and I think that river is about 50 degrees year round."
Nichols stuck close to the banks hoping for sight of their destination. He kept running into trees and limbs and broke the propeller before finally crashing into a boat dock.
He pulled Driscoll out of the canoe. Dietrich said he injured one of his legs when it was pinned between the canoe and a cable connected to the dock, but not seriously enough that he couldn't run to a house they saw in the distance. The others followed.
Dietrich knocked on the door of the home of Brett McMillon, a State Farm agent in Coring, Ark. McMillon drove the boys to the Baxter Regional Medical Center in Mtn. Home,. Joan Dietrich said McMillon is still keeping tabs on Driscoll's recovery.
The boys said that at the hospital they were told it was too late for the antivenin serum to be administered because there is a certain timeline for its effectiveness. Driscoll was given nausea and pain medications.
THE PARENTS
Cathy Driscoll said she had just pulled into her driveway after a trip to St. Louis when her son called and told his father, Steve, he should soon be released from the hospital. "I didn't want him to go who knows where, certainly not back to the river," she said.
The next day, Joan's husband went back to where they left their equipment and supplies from their crashed canoe. The teens had prayed to St. Anthony, the finder of lost items, and later found everything they left behind, including a hat with sentimental value that Driscoll's brother had given him from Iraq.
When Joan asked them, "Who wants to go again?" all three put their hands up, with the stipulation that they would wear snake boots next time.
"They promised themselves they would do this together every year for the rest of their lives, and I hope they do," said Joan.
"After everything that happened, I wish we would've killed that snake," Dietrich said.
"Me, too," said Driscoll.