Reid moving forward after poisonous snake bite

At first, Matt Reid thought he'd stepped on a thorn or maybe brushed past a rose bush or something. The pain felt more like a pinch than an actually snake bite.

When the South Carolina Stingrays winger looked down at his foot, he saw just a small spot of blood.

No big deal.

But what at first seemed to be a minor encounter with nature turned into a three-day ordeal that landed the Stingrays leading goal scorer from a year ago in the Intensive Care Unit at Trident Hospital.

"You look back on it now and it's something you can kind of laugh about because everything turned out OK," Reid said. "But when you're going through it, I can tell you, it's not funny at all."

Two days before the Stingrays' season opener against Columbia, Reid was inspecting a pressure washing job in West Ashley. Reid, along with Stingrays trainer DJ Church, are co-owners of Lowcountry Wash Systems — a company that specializes in pressure washing commercial and residential sites.

"We did a couple of residential houses and I was making sure everything was going OK," Reid said. "I was walking between two houses and I felt this pinch on my ankle. I saw little blood, but it didn't hurt that much."

But then he saw something startled him — a copperhead snake slithering through the grass.

"I was like, 'this did not just happen,' " Reid said.

But being from New York, Reid had little experience with poisonous snakes and finished work at the site.

When he finally got into his car, Reid noticed that his ankle had swelled to nearly double its normal size.

"I knew that wasn't good, but I still wasn't all that concerned," Reid said.

Reid met Church at another work site about 20 minutes later. His foot was getting worse.

"There was a guy there that had a book with pictures of all the poisonous snakes in South Carolina," Church said. "Matt pointed to the copperhead and I knew he needed to get to the emergency room quickly."

Within minutes of getting into the emergency room, Reid was hustled into see a doctor.

"My leg had started to lock up and it was getting pretty painful at that point," Reid said. "I thought I'd just get a shot and then be out of there."

No such luck.

Within 30 minutes of his arrival, Reid was in the ICU at Trident Hospital receiving anti-venom.

He would not move from his hospital bed for two full days.

"I went from thinking I was getting a shot to having this $80,000 anti-venom pumped into me for two days," Reid said. "Every 15 minutes a nurse would come in to take my vital signs. It was probably the longest two days of my life. I'm not the kind of person that can just sit around and do nothing for two days. I was having major cabin fever.

"But the nurses and doctors took great care of me, so I'm not complaining. They probably saved my life if you think about it."

Reid was released from the hospital the morning of the Stingrays' opener against Columbia. He watched from the stands as the Stingrays skated to an easy 7-3 victory. He would miss the next two games as well.

"The doctors were not sure when I'd be able to get back on the ice," Reid said. "It was tough just sitting up there watching us play."

Reid's ankle finally started to feel better by last Tuesday, and he decided to go on the Stingrays' six-day, four-game road trip to face teams from the ECHL's Northern Division.

After watching the Stingrays lose in overtime to Johnstown last Wednesday morning, Reid had seen enough. He needed to get back on the ice.

"I went to practice and felt good enough to play against Wheeling (Friday night)," Reid said.

Reid scored two goals that night and he finished the weekend with two goals and an assist, but more importantly, the Stingrays won all three games with Reid in the lineup.

"There's no question Matt makes a difference when he's out there," said South Carolina coach Jared Bednar. "He's the kind of player that's going to hold other guys on the team accountable. That's why he wears an 'A' on his jersey. Other guys kind of feed off his energy. No one player is going to make or break a team, but there's no question we're a better hockey team when he's on the ice."

Reid hopes his next encounter with nature won't be so painful.

"It's definitely made me a little more cautious when I'm out walking around," Reid said. "It was a freak accident."

Reach Andrew Miller at 937-5599 or apmiller@postandcourier.com.