US Information
A Colorado man has died after being bitten by his pet monster lizard named Winston — because the sufferer’s girlfriend described discovering the venomous desert reptile latched onto his hand.
Christopher Ward, 34, had spent days clinging to life on a ventilator after being attacked by one in all his two Gila monsters.
He died within the hospital on Friday, Lakewood Police Division spokesman John Romero introduced this week.
Jefferson County coroner’s officers have declined to say if exams confirmed but that Ward had died from publicity to the lizard’s venom, or from an unrelated medical situation.
Ward’s girlfriend advised police she had heard one thing that “didn’t sound correct” and entered a room to search out Winston the Gila monster’s mouth clamped down on her boyfriend’s hand, in response to an animal management officer’s report.
She advised officers that Ward “instantly started exhibiting signs, vomiting a number of occasions and ultimately passing out and ceasing to breathe,” the report revealed.
Ward was rushed to a hospital and nearly instantly positioned on life assist.
5 days later, he was declared brain-dead.
The sufferer’s girlfriend has since turned over the couple’s two pet Gila monsters, Winston and Potato, to Lakewood Animal Management.
Greater than two dozen spiders of assorted species had been additionally faraway from the couple’s residence.
She advised officers that Winston was bought at a reptile exhibition in Denver in October, whereas Potato got here from a breeder in Arizona in November, in response to the animal management officer’s report.
Knowledgeable that Gila monsters had been unlawful in Lakewood, the lady advised officers she needed them out of her home as quickly as doable, the report mentioned.
Officers with the Colorado Division of Pure Sources despatched the lizards to Reptile Gardens close to Fast Metropolis, South Dakota.
The couple’s 26 spiders had been rehomed at an animal shelter.
Gila monsters are giant, venomous reptiles that could possibly be discovered all through the southwestern US and in elements of Mexico.
Their bites may cause searing ache and make their victims go out — however they’re sometimes not lethal.
Their venom is as poisonous as that of a western diamondback rattlesnake and there’s no antivenom for a Gila monster’s chew.
If exams decide that Ward had died from Winston the Gila monster’s chew, it could be a uncommon fatality to have been attributable to a member of the lizard species.
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