An “ incredibly strange
” death
left the residents of Lakewood, a small town in the American city of Denver, stunned.
On February 16, a man died after being bitten by a Gila monster and now shocking details of the tragedy have emerged.
Christopher Ward
, 34, was bitten by this desert lizard for 4 minutes.
On February 12, his girlfriend discovered him dying in her bed and immediately called the ambulance.
When the lizard released Ward, the man lost consciousness for a few hours.
When visited by paramedics, Ward, who was lying down, appeared “minimally responsive” and visibly very frightened.
At the hospital he was placed on life support and “continued to decline during his hospitalization.”
Finally,
four days later he died
.
According to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office report, death occurred due to “
complications from Gila monster poisoning
” with heart and liver problems as contributing factors.
The lizard belonged to the couple and was named
Winston
.
They had bought him at a reptile show in Denver and he was one of two that lived with them in their house.
The other, a smaller Gila monster, was named Potato.
The Gila monster has special teeth to not let go of its victims.
An “incredibly rare” death
For the Associated Press, this is the first death from a Gila monster bite in the United States in almost a century.
As reported by the New York Times, the herpetology curator at the Bronx Zoo,
Kevin Torregrosa
, said that it is strange to be bitten by a Gila monster and “
incredibly rare to die from one
.”
What did not seem extraordinary to him was that the monster bit Ward for four minutes, “because that's what they do.”
These animals, unlike poisonous snakes, have grooves in their teeth that allow them to cling better to their victims.
These lizards "bite, hold and chew" and this is how they release their venom.
"
They bite, they hold and they chew, and that's how they release their venom
," Torregrosa specified. He also said that the venom "is very painful" and that Gila monsters are not usually active hunters, but rather use the venom as defense.
In this sense, it is believed that Ward was playing with Winston when he bit him.
“No one is going to run out of the bushes and bite you,” Torregrosa clarified.
Gila monsters are small and slow, the specialist clarified, and although they “snake and plod along like a turtle would,” they can attack quickly.
Both Winston and Potato were taken to a reptile zoo in South Dakota.