A young girl's night of fun turned treacherous when she was bitten by a venomous snake while playing hide-and-seek at a Florida park. Seven-year-old Daniella Cabrera was hiding behind a cabin at Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach during a slumber party when she was struck on the wrist by what she thought was a harmless corn snake, as reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Daniella's father, Michael Cabrera who was at the park with the children, noticed two puncture wounds on his daughter's wrist but saw no immediate swelling or symptoms of venom injection. In a statement obtained by South Florida Sun Sentinel, he recounted his initial calm, deciding to "give it 10 minutes" before taking further action. The confusion heightened due to the complexities of snake identification, especially in the park's dim light, where distinguishing between venomous and non-venomous snakes becomes nearly impossible, as a wilderness emergency medic and venom response specialist Ben Abo explained to the outlet.
Erring on the side of caution, Cabrera took his daughter to Broward Health in Coral Springs, where health professionals quickly attended to Daniella. The doctors immediately suspected a water moccasin bite instead of a corn snake due to the nature of the wound which, featured two distinct incisors, the second article by WESH reported. Intravenous therapy was administered to Daniella to prevent any potential spread of venom.
After further examination and observation, with symptoms not manifesting as one would expect from venomous bites, doctors inferred the bite could have been a "dry bite", meaning no venom was released during the encounter. "She was a very lucky girl," Naomi Reinfeld Cabrera, Daniella’s mother, told the Sun Sentinel. Such bites are not as rare as one might think in Florida, with Abo mentioning one-fifth of snake bites being dry, in an interview with the Sun Sentinel. The girl was kept overnight for observation due to slight irregularities in her bloodwork.
Although the incident occurred in an off-peak season for snake encounters, the potential for such encounters looms year-round, exacerbated by disturbances from storms or human encroachment on natural habitats. Michael Cabrera reflected on the growing concerns, telling the Sun Sentinel, "You've got a lot of development that’s constantly encroaching on the Everglades — West Parkland has tons of development, and there’s wildlife out there." Now more than a week past the bite, the wound has healed to two little dots, but has left Daniella hesitant about returning outdoors, forgoing events like the Renaissance Festival held at the same park.
