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Man tries selfie with rattlesnake, gets snakebit for $150,000

Technically Incorrect: A man gets a $150,000 doctor's bill after a rattler decides a selfie just isn't his thing.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


Knuckle sandwich. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Many of the world's animals appear to have a message for humans who want to take selfies with them: "Please don't, you myopic, self-regarding doofus."

Earlier this week, a Mississippi woman was attacked by a bison in Yellowstone National Park after trying to take a selfie with it.

Recently, though, a San Diego man thought it might be an idea to take a selfie with a rattlesnake.

Some might think this has all the sense of taking a boa constrictor clubbing. However, as KGTV in San Diego reported, Todd Fassler picked a rattlesnake out of the brush and thought he might memorialize the event.

The snake had other ideas and bit him.

Fassler was taken to hospital. His medical expenses could be described as expensive. KGTV's Dan Haggerty tweeted Fassler's bill -- for $153,161.25. Of this, more than $83,000 was for "pharmacy." His case reportedly depleted the antivenom supplies at two local hospitals.

While you might rail against the iniquities of the US medical system, I will continue to focus on the nonsense of taking selfies with animals who have a clear disinterest in having their picture taken.

Please don't do this. Yes, it's the summer and rosé can go to your head.

But how many more examples does the world need of people believing that taking a selfie takes precedence over all other human activity and all other animal life?

There are other things you can do with your day, your hour, your minute. The 30 seconds of fame you think you'll get isn't worth, say, Todd Fassler's five-day hospital stay.

You have been warned.