What happens when you are bitten by a copperhead?
The venom is haemotoxic, which means it destroys soft tissues such as blood cells. The bite itself is not terribly painful, no more or less than any small snake bite, but the immediate effects of the venom are said to be extraordinarily painful. Pain at the site of the bite, slowly spreading outward as the venom diffuses through your muscle tissue and enters the bloodstream.Most copperhead bites aren't fatal, even dogs and cats often survive it just fine, even without medical attention. But it hurts. For days. And not like "ow, that hurts," serious hurt. Someone I know who had experienced all three said that the copperhead bite ranked as most painful, followed by passing kidney stones, with childbirth being a distant third place. That's pretty up there on the pain scale.The cost is another thing entirely. A course of antiveom usually costs around $30,000, a normal course being 25-30 vials at $1200 each. That doesn't count the hospital stay, the specialists you'll have to see, and the other costs associated with a hospital stay. It also doesn't account for reconstructive surgery, which, depending on where you were bitten and how long before you received medical attention, could be necessary. Although your insurance company may disagree and call it elective.The most common serious injuries are amputations. The most damaging effect of the venom is the swelling. Bites on the fingers or toes can easily result in such serious swelling that circulation is lost to the finger or toes, resulting in that digit needing to be amputated. In larger muscles sometimes muscle tissue has to be cut away, leaving scars and holes in the muscle.So overall I'd say not a pleasant experience. I've never been bitten, but I know several people who have, and one of my dogs was bit two years ago. We get copperheads in the yard occasionally, and I usually kill them. Here's a little one I found in the yard in April.And an older one from a few years ago (sans head).
If a soldier is deployed and he mistakenly lost bullets, what are his punishments? Does he have to pay a price for them?
I was assigned to work the arms room for a few months (AF Security Specialist, or just Security Police). When we checked out ammo we checked each magazine to see that it held 18 rounds (never put 20 in a 20 round mag). It was a simple procedure; we had a wooden measuring block that was marked and shoved it down in the magazine to the 18 round line. When the SP’s returned the magazines at shift change, we checked them in the same way.For a time we had some reservists putting in their two weeks on our base and one of them was a real screw up. He was assigned to guard an empty nose-dock on the flight line. (We tended to put the reservists on guard posts we just made-up while they were there, so the actual secure areas were still protected by experienced SP’s.)I was checking in this guy and one of his magazines was short three rounds. He tried to claim it was that way when he got it, but I had been the one to issue it along with two other magazines and knew it was correct. The other two magazines still contained 18 rounds. I told him he either came up with the rounds or I’d have to write him up. He kept wanting to argue, then another SP said, “Him and another reservist were tossing his web belt with the magazines back and forth like it was a football while we waited on the truck to pick us up for shift change. They probably fell out.”I told him he had 30 minutes to catch a ride with one of the patrols back to where he was playing “football” and find the rounds or I’d have to report it to the arms room sergeant when he came on duty in about a half hour. He left muttering “it’s only a couple bullets” and got his ride. About 20 minutes later he returned with the three rounds. They’d fallen out in the grass where they were tossing his web belt. He still had an attitude about it so I decided to tell the arms room sergeant about the incident anyway. The sergeant said, “Don’t issue him a weapon or ammo the rest of his time here. He can stay up front at the desk and mop the floor and empty trash and run errands.”Had he not found the rounds, it would have been an Article 15. I don’t know how that would affect a reservist. This was in early 1970’s so maybe today it’s different.
I accidentally left a bag unattended at the Atlanta airport, what could have happened?
I don't know how Atlanta Airport works, but most airports have warning signs and regular loudspeaker warnings telling passengers not yo leave luggage unattended. The reason for this is that unattended bags are seen as a sepcurity risk - this is how terrorists leave bombs in airports. If the bag had been spotted by security there is every chance the area would have been evacuated until security could check that the bag was completely safe. Evacuating a terminal would be a huge disruption causing flight delays, check-in difficulties, and very angry and scared paseengers. If this had happened in France the bag would have been removed to a safe place and then blown up!! Lucky you found the bag before anything nasty happened. If you hadn't realised you'd left the bag, and security found it, you might have been told off, but that's it. See this as a good lesson in looking after your belongings but, please, stop being scared. There is nothing to be scared of now. You cannot change what happened, and anyway, you found the bag and that was good, so everything is OK now.