Did a "rattle head" snake bite a child in the summer of 2021? No, that's not true: This claim is missing context, as the photo with a post seeking prayers is from a 2019 news account of a 2-year-old South Carolina child who was bitten by a copperhead and survived after hospital treatment.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on August 4, 2021. It featured a photo of a hospitalized toddler's swollen and discolored leg with ink markings on it. The text above this photo reads:
🙌🙌🙌 This child was bitten by a rattle head snake please pray for his full recovery..don't ignore could've be ur child as well 🙌🙌🙌
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on August 5, 2021:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Thu Aug 5 20:34:33 2021 UTC)
The post seeking prayers uses a photo that originally appeared in an article published on October 8, 2019, by WYFF Greenville, a local news station in South Carolina, about a snakebite case in the state. The article quoted the father of the 2-year-old as saying he was bitten by a juvenile copperhead snake in the family's front yard -- not as the post says -- a "rattle head" snake, an apparent reference to a rattlesnake.
According to the article, the child was treated at a hospital with anti-venom medication to counteract the snake's venom.
