Connecticut

Connecticut man bitten by rare rattlesnake he tried to help ends up in coma

Published

4 months ago

August 1, 2024

Connecticut man bitten by rare rattlesnake he tried to help ends up in coma

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.

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Connecticut

Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder

Published

24 mins ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder

Ouch!

A newspaper in Connecticut had an unfortunate typo involving Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley’s herniated disc on Monday.

This past Monday, The Chronicle, a newspaper covering Eastern Connecticut, published an AP story on the front page of its sports section in the print edition that referred to Mosley’s “herniated d–k.”

Mosley has missed the Jets’ four games with the injury — the one in his neck, that is.

Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley speaks with the media before practice in Florham Park, NJ. Bill Kostroun/New York Post

In the copy, Mosley’s injury was not shafted, getting described correctly in the nut graph.

The unfortunate phallacy did not go unnoticed: in an extra twist, the error went viral when it was posted on the X account of David Coverdale, the 73-year-old singer of Whitesnake.

An editor for The Chronicle told The Post that the newspaper would be issuing a correction in the paper.

Last week, prior to the Jets’ loss to the Colts, Mosley spoke about how he hoped to return after the Jets’ bye, when they host the Seahawks on Dec. 1.

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“That’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I’m in a position where I’ve played a lot of football. Me missing this time won’t hurt me as much as another guy that might need this opportunity. It’s about safety at the end of the day. When I go home, I’m Clint Mosley. I’m C.J. I’m not the football player.”

Mosley said the birth of his daughter, who arrived the week after his injury, put things in perspective for him.

“I had a full week of having a normal neck and ever since then every time I’m looking down, my neck’s hurting,” Mosley said. “It puts things in perspective. There’s a lot of life after football. When I’m done playing, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent.”

From head to toe and everywhere in between.

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Connecticut

Another Earthquake Hits CT: Did You Feel It?: CT News

Published

8 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Another Earthquake Hits CT: Did You Feel It?: CT News

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.

A second earthquake hit Connecticut this week, and this one was a higher magnitude earthquake than the previous one, according to the United States Geological Survey.>>>Read More.

A collision between a car and tractor-trailer on the highway turned fatal, state police said.>>>Read More.

A suspected drunken driver was corralled by an alert citizen and state police, officials said.>>>Read More.

Here are the latest updates on Thursday’s storm for Connecticut, including some changes for Friday.>>>Read More.

In Connecticut, there are a few exceptions to what has been a trend since 2019 for retail stores to close on Thanksgiving Day.>>>Read More.

The holidays are coming in hot: One glance at CT’s events calendar would make you think we were already waist-deep in garland and tinsel.>>>Read More.

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