A man was bitten by a rattlesnake Tuesday while trying to save a turtle from getting run over on a busy highway.
The 24-year-old man had just spotted a turtle on the highway and brought it to safety in the grass on the roadside of the intersection between Interstates 75 and 595, when an eastern diamondback rattlesnake bit his left hand.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's venom response team responded to Memorial Regional Hospital, where the man had been driven and was given six units of antivenom in the Intensive Care Unit.
The snake was likely a baby, no bigger than eight inches.
It is the second rattlesnake bite the team has responded to in the past week. On Saturday, a ranger at Everglades National Park was bitten in the hand by an eastern diamondback rattler while removing it from a storage closet in staff housing.
Ranger Anthony Terry was transported by helicopter from the park to Homestead Baptist Hospital, where he received anti-venom from the response team.
As full grown adults, eastern diamondback rattlesnkes are considered one of the most dangerous snakes in North America.
BELOW: A photograph of the man's hands.
