Patch AM CT brings you the breaking and trending news stories from all across Connecticut each weekday morning. At any point, you can find your local Patch and catch up on those stories here. Thank you for reading.

The 1-year-old placed a bag found at the park in his mouth, which is suspected of containing fentanyl, reports state.>>>Read More.

A teenager was taken to a hospital after he was shot at a condominium complex, police said.>>>Read More.

A person was pulled from the river and taken to a hospital, according to a report.>>>Read More.

A compact car had a wild ride on the northernmost stretch of the highway after hitting debris, state police said.>>>Read More.

Patrol officers were flagged down by a man who had been stabbed, police said.>>>Read More.

See also:

UNION, CT — Road debris in the northernmost reaches of Tolland County caused a wild crash over the weekend, state police said.

The crash took place at 5:48 a.m. Sunday, state police said.

According to a crash report, a 2009 Scion Xd being driven by a 20-year-old West Hartford man was heading west on Interstate 84 in Union when the compact car hit debris on the road.

The driver then lost control of the car and it hit a flashing marker on the left shoulder, caromed across three lanes, struck mile marker 91.4, rolled up an embankment and then landed on the right shoulder, according to a crash report.

The driver declined medical treatment at the scene, and was warned for a lane violation, according to a crash report.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — When Joseph Ricciardella saw the snake in the road, he stopped his car and tried to help it avoid getting run over.

The attempted good deed landed him in a Connecticut hospital in a medically induced coma after the timber rattlesnake, which is rare in the Northeast, bit his hand when he threw a shirt over it and tried to pick it up, said Brittany Hilmeyer, his former girlfriend and the mother of his daughter.

Hilmeyer said Ricciardella called her on Sunday to say he had just been bitten and was driving to the hospital. His voice sounded odd, like Donald Duck, she said. She said it happened as Ricciardella was driving from a park in upstate New York to his home in Torrington, Connecticut, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Hartford.

It isn’t clear exactly where the encounter happened because he hasn’t been able to speak in detail yet to family and friends, she said.

Ricciardella, 45, a father of four who runs a landscaping business and has no medical insurance, went into cardiac arrest, was resuscitated and was later placed into a medically induced coma after being flown from a hospital in Torrington one in Hartford, Hilmeyer said. Doctors brought him out of the coma on Tuesday, but he remained intubated and sedated because of swelling from the venom, she said.

“It was surprising that, like, anybody would try to pick up a rattlesnake,” Hilmeyer said by phone Thursday. “But it doesn’t surprise me in the same sense because he kind of always did that. If he saw an animal on the side of the road or in the road, he would try to stop and get them out of the road. Or, if he was in his Facebook groups and he’d see they have animals that need help, he would take those animals.”

“It’s crazy. It’s something you would never think is going to happen,” she said.

The timber rattlesnake is one of two venomous snakes found in Connecticut — the other being the northern copperhead — and is extremely rare, according to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The snake is listed as endangered and is illegal to kill or collect. Rattlesnake bites are also extremely rare in the state, the agency said.

Ricciardella’s brother, Robert Ricciardella, said they grew up in Waterbury, Connecticut, and spent weekends in upstate New York, where they used to play in the woods and catch snakes, lizards and other critters — but never a rattlesnake. He said he was surprised that his brother tried to help one and was bitten.

“He does quite know better,” he said.

Joseph Ricciardella’s family has set up a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $5,000 so far to pay his medical bills.