“Mama bear instinct in me:" Nine months pregnant, mother tries to suck venom from son, bitten by snake

CALIFORNIA -- A family in Folsom, California got quite the scare when their young son was bitten by a rattlesnake as he was walking along a bike trail. Acting on instinct, the boy's mother, who is nine months pregnant, tried to suck the venom out of the boy's foot, FOX40 reports.

Jaclyn Caramazza, who is nine months pregnant, was anticipating a trip to the hospital sometime this month.

“We went to Mercy Folsom, which is about a five minute drive, and made it in three,” she said.

She made it to the hospital, but not because she was giving birth.

On their way back from a stroll on the Folsom Bike Trail, her four-year-old son Vinny accidentally stepped on something brown.

“It wasn’t dog poop!” Vinny said.

“I’m looking around, and took his shoes off, and lo-and-behold, there were two little puncture marks,” Caramazza told FOX40.

Vinny was bitten by a startled baby rattlesnake. Within minutes, the boy's ankle started to swell and turned purple. The venom spread to his entire leg.

“Mama bear instinct in me decided to suck the venom because that’s what Bonanza does,” Caramazza said.

“Misconception is lacerate between the two points and suck the venom out,” Chris Stoots, with California Fish and Wildlife told FOX40. “Absolutely don’t do that. Use your basic wound-type stuff -- soap and water. Wash the area, keep it clean and call 911 immediately.”

Luckily, the venom Caramazza tried to suck out of Vinny’s leg didn’t spread to her or her unborn son.

Vinny is recovering.