The Associated Press
PALATKA, Fl. - A former Collier County firefighter died after being bitten by a diamondback rattlesnake. Joe Guidry, 54, was bitten after he shot the five-foot snake in his neighbor’s yard Oct. 1. Guidry, a Putnam County fire marshal, reached out to grab the snake, which he thought was close to death, and that’s when officials say he was bitten on his right hand.
Putnam County Sheriff Dean Kelly says Guidry told him in intensive care that he felt the snake’s poison tingling in his lips as soon as he stood up after the bite. Guidry’s condition worsened despite receiving 18 vials of antivenin and he died Friday, Kelly said. “He died helping someone else. I think his mission in life was to make people remember him and well, mission accomplished,” Kelly said.
Guidry had also worked as a firefighter in Clay County and an emergency medical technician in St. Johns County.