Linda Martin was bitten on the toe by a rattlesnake while checking her roses in her front garden in Stevenson Ranch, and the effects moved fast enough to force a hospital run for antivenom. Within 30 to 45 seconds, she said the venom had already begun working its way through her body.
Martin said the first tingling reached her fingertips, then spread into her jaw, cheeks and tongue. That kind of speed is why a snakebite is treated as a medical emergency even when the wound looks small at first. She and her husband reached Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in about 10 minutes, where she received antivenom.
The reason she did not wait for an ambulance was simple and unsettling. Martin said she tried to call 911 multiple times, but her phone would not connect. After three failed attempts, her husband told her to get in the car, and they drove themselves to the hospital. In a situation where minutes matter, the failed call meant the difference between a normal emergency response and a desperate drive.
Martin said the scare would not be the last part of the story. She said she is considering pushing for better cell service in her community and may get a landline, a small change that now feels a lot less optional. Her own experience also fits a wider pattern: Lee Cantrell of California Poison Control Systems said the center handled a little over 400 calls about rattlesnake bites last year and 250 in the first six months of 2026, with a 20 percent increase expected this year.
Cantrell’s numbers suggest Martin’s ordeal was not a one-off. A rattlesnake bite can turn serious in less than a minute, antivenom is part of the treatment, and a phone that fails at the wrong moment can leave even a homeowner close to help with nowhere to turn.
