Snakebite victim searches for hospital

Parish Councilman Mitchel J. Ourso Sr.'s wife, Amy, suffered a rattlesnake bite outside their White Castle area home around 6 p.m. Friday, the worst possible time to drive to a Baton Rouge hospital.

“We didn't know which way to go,” Ourso said, relating the story after a committee meeting on a proposal to build a new hospital in the Plaquemine area.

They drove to Donaldsonville, where they were met by an ambulance that took Amy Ourso to St. Elizabeth's hospital in Gonzales.

She was getting ready for a party for a nephew who is getting married, and was watering plants, not knowing the 20-inch snake was sheltering there.

“She thought it was a dead leaf,” the councilman said.

He said his wife received excellent care at St. Elizabeth's and returned home on Sunday.