A 25-year-old California man and Eagle Scout is dead after a rattlesnake bit him during a mountain bike ride — and now his family says they’re desperate for answers about what happened in the weeks that followed.
Julian Hernandez was riding at Qual Hill in Irvine on Feb. 1 when he was bitten by a venomous rattlesnake, according to local reports. He tried to pedal away and get to safety, but the venom hit fast. He was eventually rushed to a nearby hospital.
From there, the situation turned into a nightmare.
Hernandez fell into a coma and was placed in the ICU. He died more than a month later on March 4.
Now, his family is questioning the circumstances surrounding his death — even as the coroner’s office has said the rattlesnake bite was the cause.
“We are a family that handed our son over to people we trusted and never got him back,” a family member, James Hernandez, wrote on a GoFundMe titled “Help Julian’s family get answers.”
The GoFundMe says Julian was “alive when he got to the hospital” and claims the family plans to “pursue the truth about what happened.” The fundraiser has brought in more than $20,000 toward a goal of $123,000, which is meant to cover funeral and medical costs while they seek clarity.
According to reports, the family has decided to pursue a third-party autopsy.
Doctors say rattlesnake venom can overwhelm the body quickly, and timing matters. Dr. William Woo of Kaiser Permanente explained that rattlesnake venom can trigger major stress on the body and even lead to organ shutdown — and that antivenom works best when it’s administered as soon as possible.
“It can be really severe,” he said, adding that the sooner antivenom is given, “the better off the patients are.”
And here’s what’s making people even more uneasy: locals say snake season appears to be starting early.
Experts and hikers in Orange County have pointed to warmer temperatures pushing rattlesnakes into activity sooner than many expect. One hiker described freezing in place after spotting a red diamond rattlesnake on the trail, saying the sight “stopped me in my tracks.”
While venomous snake bites are rare, they do happen. The CDC estimates roughly 7,000 to 8,000 people are bitten by venomous snakes in the U.S. each year — and only about five deaths are reported annually.
For Hernandez’s family, the statistics don’t soften the grief. They say they want the full story of how a bike ride in early February turned into a month-long ICU battle — and why they believe there are still questions that haven’t been answered.
So sick of GoFundMe. Our society has gone from individual responsibility to communal dependency. Until they eventually take governmental power, communists will sneak it in through the back door of bleeding hearts.