This spring, a few days after his 2nd birthday, Brigland Pfeffer was playing with his siblings in their San Diego backyard. His mother, Lindsay Pfeffer, was a few feet away when Brigland made a noise and came running from the stone firepit, holding his right hand. She noticed a pinprick of blood between his thumb and forefinger when her older son called out, “Snake!” “I saw a small rattlesnake coiled up by the firepit,” she said.
Pfeffer called 911, and an ambulance transported Brigland to Palomar Medical Center Escondido. Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KFF Health News and The Washington Post’s Well+Being that dissects and explains medical bills. Since 2018, this series has helped many patients and readers get their medical bills reduced, and it has been cited in statehouses, at the U.
S. Capitol, and at the White House. Do you have a confusing or outrageous medical bill you want to share? Tell us about it ! The Medical Procedure When they arrived, Brigland’s hand was swollen and purple.
Antivenom, an antibody therapy that disables certain toxins, is usually administered via an intravenous line, directly into the bloodstream. But emergency room staffers struggled to insert the IV. “They had so many people in that room trying his head, his neck, his feet, his arms — like, everything to find a vein,” Pfeffer said.
Still unable to start the antivenom, a doctor asked for her permission to try drastic measures. “Just get something going,”.