Man kills snake, get bitten by its severed head

When the man bent down to dispose of the 'dead' snake, it turned and bit him on the hand.

In a bizarre incident, the severed head of a four-foot rattlesnake bit a man in Texas minutes after it was decapitated. The man bent down to dispose the 'dead' rattlesnake but it turned around and bit him on the hand. Within seconds the man started having seizures, lost his vision, experienced internal bleeding, and required 26 doses of anti-venom.
The incident occurred on 27 May, when Jennifer Sutcliffe was working in her garden, she was terrified to spot the rattlesnake hiding in the grass. She called her husband who decapitated the snake with a shovel, according to a Chron.com report. "The head actually turned around and grabbed onto his hand. He had to rip it off," said the wife.
According to Live Science, biting is one of the reflexes that can be triggered in the brain of venomous snakes like cobras and rattlesnakes even hours after the reptile is dead. In this case, as the rattlesnake's head was severed from its body, it apparently released large amount of deadly venom into the man's hand. "Since there is no body, it released all its venom into him," Sutcliffe told KIIITV. Sutcliffe's husband was airlifted from their home near Corpus Christi and is reportedly in stable condition now.
Sutcliffe did not reveal her husband's name to the media as she didn't want him to receive any negative attention. "Some people are saying we deserve it, it's karma. But we were in our own yard we weren't messing around in the woods," the wife said.
Anti-venom doctor at the University of Arizona VIPER Institute, Leslie Boyer warned against cutting up snakes and advised backing away and calling an expert to remove it. "It's cruel to the animal and it leaves you with a smaller piece that's venomous to pick up," she said in an interview to Gizmodo.
In February in Uttar Pradesh, India, a farmer gabbed attention after he reportedly chewed off and spit out a snake's hood 'for revenge'. He fell unconscious but was treated by doctors. When he regained consciousness, the farmer said he bit the snake because it bit him first. Eyewitnesses reported the snake to be a python.