Snake bite = helicopter ride
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Fun in the hospital COURTESY PHOTO Lying in a bed at Driscoll Children's Hospital on May 7, second-grader Clayton Hornbuckle of Port Aransas plays a video game while recovering from a snake bite. Clayton has since recovered and is back in classes at H.G. Olsen Elementary School.

Getting bitten by a rattlesnake is, of course, a harrowing ordeal, especially when the victim is a child. That's the way it was for 8-year-old Clayton Hornbuckle of Port Aransas.

But, for Clayton, the experience also meant an exciting helicopter ride, an introduction to some pro baseball players and the star treatment from fellow second graders at H.G. Olsen Elementary School.

"I'm famous!" Clayton said, grinning at the thought during a recent interview with the South Jetty. "It's cool!"

The snake bit Clayton on May 3 while he was standing in a vacant lot off 11th Street, where his father was working on a construction project. The snake, described as being about 5 feet long, bit him on his right lower leg.

The bite felt "like lightning," Clayton said. "I started hopping around everywhere."

STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Healing nicely Clayton Hornbuckle, a secondgrade student at H.G. Olsen Elementary School, shows the scab he still has on his ankle after being bitten by a rattlesnake on May 3.

Clayton's father, William Hornbuckle, called 911 on his cell phone. An ambulance rushed the boy to a spot at Island Moorings where a HALO Flight helicopter was to pick him up.

Clayton was sobbing from the pain in his leg and from fear that he might die - until he was told he was going to get a helicopter ride to Corpus Christi. He cheered right up then, anticipating a fun ride. He never had even been in a plane before.

"It was fun," he said. "Kind of like I was floating. It was great!"

Clayton spent the next four days at Driscoll Children's Hospital. His lower leg turned black and blue, and he was administered many doses of anti-venom before the awful color started breaking up after about 48 hours in the hospital, said Clayton's mother, Stormy Hornbuckle.

But Clayton got painkillers, and he said he didn't suffer during his hospital stay. Matter of fact, he had a great time playing Nintendo and Game Cube video games that the hospital always has on hand for its many young patients.

"I got to get in a wheelchair and go everywhere in the hospital!" Clayton said.

At one point, three players from Corpus Christi's minor-league pro baseball team, the Hooks, were at Driscoll to visit another patient, but when they heard about Clayton, they visited him too and gave him free tickets to a Hooks game. The team mascot, Rusty Hook, also visited Clayton and gave him an autographed photo.

Clayton was released from the hospital on May 7 and went back to school six days later. Classmates peppered him with questions, asking if his wound hurt, how big the snake's rattler was and other inquiries of particular interest to second graders. They asked if they could see his wound. Clayton obliged, pulling his bandage aside.

"Cool!" the kids said. "That's awesome!"

Clayton was on crutches for a while, but he's walking around fine now. The snake bite wound is almost completely healed. But he's contemplating a new nickname for himself: Rattle Boy.

"Clayton's just Clayton," Rattle Boy said. "But Rattle Boy's cool."