Girl bitten by Pygmy rattlesnake plans to go back to preschool Monday

BRADENTON, Fla. - A day playing in the park with her daughter is a blessing for Shannon Rainwater.

"It is like I don't remember driving. I just had to get there and be there with her and for her as quickly as possible," she said.

On Monday morning, Shannon took her three year old daughter Sarah Lawson to Sunny Daze Preschool on State Road 64 in Manatee County.

Less than an hour later she received a call telling her while Sarah was playing on the playground she had been bitten by a snake.

"Thoughts were going through my head on the way to the hospital. I did not know what the outcome was going to be at that point," she said.

Shannon said teachers from the preschool ran her daughter to an emergency walk in clinic right next door. Her mom said Sarah was bite on the hand. The area began swelling and turning purple. An ambulance rushed the toddler to All Children's Hospital where they began to start an anti-venom treatment.

"It looked fake. It looked like a Hollywood prop almost," said Shannon about her daughter's hand.

Sarah's mom believes she was trying to move the snake.

"She said it was cute and it was in a circle," she said.

Faded marks show where hospital staff kept an eye on Sarah's arm. Her mom said she is almost all better, but doctors want to check Sarah one last time to make sure she has not lost any muscle tone in her arm.

"In my entire lifetime I do not know a single person that has ever been bite by a venomous snake until my daughter," she said.

Sunny Daze sits outside a woodsy area. They told ABC Action News the playground is currently closed as a precaution. Shannon said she is thankful to her daughter's teachers and everyone for saving her little girl.

"Everybody acted in such a calm professional manner that it kept her calm and in turn kept me calm," she said.

The bite has not stopped Sarah any. The playful girl plans to go back to preschool where she was bite on Monday.