A dad who was pumped with 54 rounds of anti-venom after being bitten twice by a deadly rattlesnake is facing a staggering $1.3 million (£970,000) hospital bill, his wife has revealed.
Chris Howarth, from Idaho, nearly died after accidentally stepping on the venomous snake while visiting family in Oroville, California.
The father-of-three had spent four days visiting family before the family packed their car ready for the journey home.
READ MORE: Kebab driver quits free takeaways to drop EIGHT STONE after rollercoaster blunder
But after stepping into his parents’ garden, Chris thought he had trodden on a plant hidden in the shadows.
Instead, it was a rattlesnake, which bit him twice.
Within minutes, his body began shutting down.
His tongue went numb, his lymph nodes swelled dramatically and his lungs started to fail as doctors fought to keep him alive.
The horror deepened days later when Chris developed disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) – a rare and potentially life-threatening condition that causes abnormal blood clotting throughout the body.
Doctors at Oroville Hospital administered an astonishing 54 vials of anti-venom in a desperate attempt to save his life.
The treatment was so extensive the hospital eventually ran out of the life-saving medication.
Chris was then airlifted by helicopter to Stanford Medical Centre, where doctors switched him to a different anti-venom that finally began reversing his symptoms.
After 12 gruelling days under intensive medical care, Chris was finally discharged and returned home to Idaho with his wife Jenny and their three children.
Now, weeks later, Jenny says her husband is continuing to recover, although the family are still dealing with the emotional and financial aftermath.
“Chris is feeling about 80%,” she told Need To Know.
“He still has some soreness and swelling in his leg, which gets worse with more activity.
“The worst part for him has been the lingering fatigue. He gets exhausted pretty easily.”
She said the family feared the worst while Chris remained critically ill.
“The whole incident was pretty scary for our family while he was in the hospital and his condition was so up and down.
“We all got scared one night when he went into DIC. That’s when things got scary.
“We are so glad to have him home and on the up and up.
“We’ve definitely learned not to take our time together as a family for granted. You never know when it can be your last day.”
But as Chris continues recovering, Jenny has now revealed the staggering cost of saving his life.
She said: “He does have insurance and it’ll definitely cover some.
“We haven’t gotten our portion yet but the total from both hospitals that we have seen before insurance is about $1.3 million.”
Jenny said the anti-venom alone came at an eye-watering price.
“The hospital had told us that anti-venom is about $13,000 a vial and he received 54 vials.
“Every time we were told he would need more, Chris felt stressed about the price, but we knew he needed it.
“Plus, per night in the ICU in Stanford, just having a room was $61,000.”
The ordeal has also left the family without Chris’s income for almost two months.
Jenny explained: “Chris has been out of work since May 26 and he has not been getting paid the whole time.
“He used up his PTO and sick leave when he had surgery in January.
“So that has been stressful as well.
“Just knowing we have big medical bills coming and he hasn’t received a paycheck in over seven weeks has us stressed about the future.
“We are so grateful for those who have donated.”
The family have since launched a GoFundMe to help with lost income and mounting medical costs.
At the time of writing, the fundraiser had raised more than $10,200 (£7,600) towards its $12,000 target.
READ MORE: Heavy periods led to terrifying cancer diagnosis – now survivor has ‘temporary amnesia’ every day
54 doses of anti-venom sounds intense. How do they even handle such a massive hospital bill?