The incident happened May 27 as Milo and Jennifer Sutcliffe were doing yard work at their home near Lake Corpus Christi. Jennifer Sutcliffe told KIII-TV in Corpus Christi that her husband found a four-foot rattlesnake, took his shovel and hacked off its head. She said he bent down to pick up the remains to discard and was bitten by the severed head, injecting a super dose of venom with its dying twitch.

Sutcliffe said she called 911 and began driving her husband the 45 miles to Spohn Memorial Hospital in Corpus Christi, but she said he began having seizures, losing his vision and bleeding internally. So he was airlifted the rest of the way.

Sutcliffe said her husband needed 26 doses of antivenom, where a normal patient gets two to four doses. He’s now in stable condition at Spohn.