Category: NEWS CHOICES

Once bitten, but not shy, boy back at school after snake encounter

Sabrina Mize was watching her 8-year-old son Dylan jumping on a trampoline in a friend’s backyard in Quail Hollow before he jumped off to chase a ball barefoot through the grass.

A few seconds later, he was running towards her.

“Mom, I got bit by a snake,’’ he told her.

Sabrina didn’t believe it at first.

“Did he just say what I thought he said?,’’ she thought.

Sure enough, upon further inspection, Dylan’s left ankle had two small, but very defined, puncture marks.

While Dylan had snake venom in his veins, Sabrina must have had ice water running through hers.

After getting some ice for his foot, she went hunting for the snake, hoping to identify it and praying it wasn’t poisonous. About a foot-and-a-half long, she found it where her son had likely stepped on it, prompting the bite. She inched closer, within ten feet or so, and snapped a quick picture of the red-and-orange-colored snake on her cell phone before returning to her son.

All the while, she stayed calm, cool and collected.

“Because my son was calm, I was calm,’’ Sabrina says. “He was upset when I went to go find the snake, but that was really it.”

Sabrina sent the picture to a friend, asking if she knew what kind of a snake it was. That’s when Facebook sprung into action.

Shortly after her friend took the photo and posted it on the more-than- 8,000-member-strong Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, local animal specialist Chris Wirt (we featured him in our issue dated October 24, 2015) received a message on his cellphone. He had been tagged in the Facebook post.

There is a friendly, running joke on the Facebook page about snakes and Wirt, the former Wesley Chapel resident who owns A All Animal Control of Tampa Bay. It seems like at least once a week, someone in the Wesley Chapel Community is tagging him and hoping he can identity some creature that has camped out on someone’s porch or driveway to help determine the level of danger to the home’s inhabitants and pets.

And, it doesn’t just happen on the Wesley Chapel Community page. Wirt estimates that he receives five requests a day calling on his expertise with all kinds of critters from across the Bay area.

In this case, Wirt knew the snakebite was nothing to trifle with — he replied that Dylan had been bitten by a cottonmouth, a highly venomous type of water moccasin.

Sabrina already was at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC) when she received the news, about an hour after Dylan had been bit. Dylan was then transported to Florida Hospital Tampa because it has inpatient pediatric beds (FHWC does not). There, he was treated with anti-venin to combat the dangerous bite.

Sometimes, anti-venin isn’t necessary, even when the victim is bitten by a venomous snake. According to the Tampa Poison Center website, 25 percent of snakebites are “dry bites,” where no venom is introduced to the body.

In Dylan’s case, the swelling had worsened, and had moved up his leg and was now creeping up the back of his calf. Sabrina said the bottom half of his leg “blew up so much you couldn’t touch the skin; it was so tight and so hard.”

Dylan received a treatment of antivenin at 8 p.m. His body reacted well to it, so he received two more treatments over the next twelve hours.

Sometimes, like in the case of Hope Allen, the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce president, more drastic measures are required. In 2014, Allen was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake — which Wirt says is the most common snake he comes across in Wesley Chapel — and required 18 vials of anti-venin and a five-day stay at FHWC, including two in the Intensive Care Unit.

“(Dylan) might have only gotten a little tiny bite of the venom,’’ Wirt said. “But if you don’t pay attention to what’s going on and keep running around or whatever, it could start eating away at the muscle or nerve…and it could absolutely be fatal. The 5-to-6 deaths we see every year, though, are usually because the people bit are someplace where they can’t get medical care.”

After two days in the hospital, Tampa Poison Control cleared the Veterans Elementary second-grader for a Wednesday release. The hospital kept him an additional night, just to be safe.

Sabrina said Dylan, who returned to school last week and is now off crutches, was probably more upset about the extra night in the hospital than he was about getting bitten by the cottonmouth.

On Thursday, Dylan was cleared by his doctors and left the hospital in a wheelchair.

The next day, he was back at the same friend’s house, whose yard had been cleared and treated for free by Wirt. Dylan spent most of New Year’s Eve sitting in a chair with his leg elevated, holding a stick wrapped in the skin of the snake that bit him, compliments of a neighbor who had killed it.

Wirt is currently offering his snake service for $175 (it normally costs $250), which includes clearing the yard of any snake dens or nests and treating the perimeter of the yard and the house. He can be reached at tampa@aallanimalcontrol, or visit AAllAnimalControl.com/tampa.

Meadow Pointe community pitches in to help fire recovery

Donna Kriston Farley hadn’t lived in Wesley Chapel long enough to expect her Heatherstone at Meadow Pointe neighbors, many she didn’t even know yet, to rally to her aid when her house caught fire on New Year’s Day.

But, that’s exactly what happened.

Thanks to neighbors like Jessica Beagle and Alyssa Hall, who sprung into action almost immediately, Farley, the mother of a 17-year-old son and 8-year-old triplets, watched as a section of the community clubhouse soon filled up with tables piled high with children’s clothes, toys, scooters, bikes, toiletries and “a ton of gift cards,’’ Beagle said.

Farley’s neighbors also set up a page at Facebook.com/HelpTheFarley Family to coordinate donations and a GoFundMe.com page at GoFundMe.com/6jhgwc7k.

Farley was inside the home on New Year’s Day when she smelled smoke and realized something was on fire. The blaze started in the garage, which served as a playroom for the kids, and soon engulfed the front of the house.

Beagle, who teaches 6th grade at John Long Middle School, was down the street playing outside with her daughter, who thought she saw fire. Beagle told her daughter since there were no fire trucks, they we’re okay.

“But, that’s when we heard the fire trucks,’’ Beagle says.

Neighbors tried to control the fire with extinguishers, and Beagle said she said a prayer for Farley and the family.

Soon after, she was asking what she could do to help.

“Everything just escalated from there,’’ Beagle said.

By Saturday, the help poured in.

Farley, who moved to Wesley Chapel from California three months ago, was in tears as she explained to Beagle how overwhelmed she was.

“These people don’t even know me,’’ Farley said. “I’ve never even met any of my neighbors. I feel so bad now. I was questioning whether Wesley Chapel was the area for me. But no more.”

That’s the way every community should be, Beagle thinks. It didn’t matter how many friends Farley had made, Beagle said she knew she had to do something and it wasn’t long before dozens of others in Heatherstone had banded together with her. She reached out to Hall, who was able to reach even more people to help.

“The most amazing thing is, there were kids who were bringing their Christmas presents, that they had just gotten, to the clubhouse to donate,’’ Beagle says.

The house is being rebuilt, and Farley says she plans to move back in to the neighborhood.

Sophia's lemonade stand raising money for K-9 safety

By Celeste McLaughlin

Sophia Contino, who lives in Meadow Pointe and attends Sand Pine Elementary, is an eight year old who wants to save lives. More specifically, she wants to save canine lives by providing the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO)’s K-9 officers with bulletproof vests.

Sophia’s dad, Jason, first heard about the need to supply vests for the Pasco Sheriff’s K-9 unit at the June 2, 2015, meeting of the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC), of which he is a member. He told Sophia what he had heard, and she came up with the idea of having a lemonade stand, where all of raised the money would be donated to the K-9 cause.

“The reason I am raising money is, I love dogs and I love people,” says Sophia in a video on her Facebook page, which already has been viewed more than 1,000 times at Facebook.com/SophiaPCSOK9 (or search “Sophia’s PCSO K9 Association Campaign”).

Her dad says the Continos don’t currently have a dog at home, and Sophia may be trying to fill a void left by the loss of their beloved black lab, Payton, who passed away when Sophia was five.

Her first goal is to raise $2,500, which is the cost of one higher-end canine bulletproof vest that also measures the dog’s biometrics. Once she meets that goal, she plans to present the money to Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco in person. And, her dad says, “Sophia asked me how many vests the Sheriff’s Office needs. I was told they need 11, so she really wants to raise enough money to buy 11 vests.”

According to the Pasco Sheriff’s K9 Association website, there are currently nine active K9 officers and Jason says he is aware of at least one more joining the Sheriff’s Office soon.

Sophia says she charges 50 cents for each cup of lemonade, but that she often receives much more, even $20, for one cup, once people know the cause they’re supporting with their purchase.

Although her first lemonade stand made just a small profit, she has received much more financial support from her Facebook page. Her dad says they have received donations from as far away as New Hampshire and Illinois, and donations to her campaign had totaled more than $1,000 as we went to press with this issue.

Closer to home, Sophia has gotten support from local businesses, including Jefferson Bank, which set up an account where anyone can walk into any branch (including the one in Tampa Palms at 15302 Amberly Dr.) and make a donation to “Sophia’s Pasco County Sheriff’s K9 Fund.” She also has been invited to set up a lemonade stand at Wesley Chapel Nissan (located at 28519 S.R. 54, which she did for the first time on January 9).

Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan, a member of the WCCC who was instrumental in bringing awareness of the issue to the group, has helped the dealership (which is owned by Jay Rosario) raise $10,000 to donate to PCSO to get the ball rolling for the K-9 vests. He also got permission for Sophia to sell lemonade at the dealership.

“Sophia is a dynamo,” says Troy. “I wish I had her selling cars for us. She could raise $10,000 herself before she’s done.”

Want to support Sophia’s efforts? Come out and buy lemonade at her next lemonade stand, which will be on Saturday, January 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. It will be held in conjunction with a free shredding event by local business Shred360 at the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce office (6013 Wesley Grove Blvd., #105, in The Grove at Wesley Chapel plaza). Or, check out her Facebook page, where you’ll find a link to make a donation via PayPal. You can also make a donation at the Jefferson Bank branch in Tampa Palms.

A kind gesture goes a long way

Bruce Leggett didn’t think much of it.

He heard a child screech uncontrollably. He saw a mother turn red, fraught with worry.

So he smiled, and waved to the girl.

He explained to his 8-year-old son Connor that sometimes, children have disabilities, and can’t control their actions. So, Connor also smiled and waved to the little girl.

The girl, 9-year-old Ragan Thursby, smiled back. She also clapped her hands and giggled. Her mother, Kasi Thursby, turned to see who her daughter was waving to, but she didn’t recognize anyone they might have known.

Bruce, his wife Melissa and their six children finished their dinner at the Olive Garden on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in New Tampa and went home, hardly thinking for a second he would ever hear from the little girl or her family again.

Ragan suffers from autism and Pitt Hopkins Syndrome (PHS), and Kasi says her daughter is one of only 500 people diagnosed with PHS in the entire world.

PHS is an extremely rare genetic disorder that affects Chromosome 18. Among its symptoms are developmental delays, breathing problems, seizures and epilepsy, gastrointestinal issues and lack of speech.

You can learn more by visiting Ragan’s Facebook page.

Kasi first knew something was wrong with Ragan when she was slow to walk and talk, and was beset with horrible stomach pains and a host of other issues, like enhanced sensitivity to noises and light. When she was 2-^1/2, Ragan was the first pediatric patient at the Undisclosed Diseases Program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. It took roughly six years and countless trips to hospitals all over the country, visiting with endless geneticists, neurologists and neurodevelopmental specialists, before she was finally diagnosed.

Kasi Thursby, whose family recently moved to Wesley Chapel from Tallahassee, enjoyed her dinner that night at Olive Garden, maybe as much as she has ever enjoyed any dinner out with her family. Her stomach was full, and so was her heart.

“Ragan was staring and laughing when she realized they were responding to her. She started clapping her hands, and he encouraged his kids to wave to her,’’ Kasi said. “When I realized what he was doing, I was kind of taken aback. When his 2-year old kept waving and waving and waving….well, no one wants to cry in public, so it took everything I had to not have tears running down my face.”

It wasn’t the typical reaction they receive during hair-raising moments in public places. In fact, it was the first time Kasi could remember anyone smiling or waving. Usually, she says, she hears people muttering under their breath that she needs to control her children.

To be clear, Kasi completely understands why people can grow annoyed. She can even sympathize with them. As a result, every meal her family eats out generally starts with a large helping of anxiety.

“I wouldn’t want to hear a screaming child at dinner either,’’ she says. But she always tends to her daughter, making every effort to quiet, distract and entertain her with an iPad and to keep everyone else from being disturbed.

“It would be one thing if I was ignoring my child and texting on my phone and my kids were running wild,’’ she says. “That’s not the case.”

Ragan, who attends school at Connerton Elementary in Land O’Lakes, can make uncontrollable ear-piercing sounds because it’s her only form of communication. She does it when she is excited, and sometimes when she grows frustrated. Kasi says there are times she has to take her daughter out to the car while the rest of the family — her 11-year-old daughter Reeslyn and fiancé Milton Pulliza, a software developer who works in Tampa — finishes their meal.

That night at the Olive Garden, Bruce Leggett heard the screech, and instead of ushering his family away or rolling his eyes, he embraced Ragan from a distance, which seemed to soothe her.

“It just wasn’t the reaction we are used to,’’ Kasi said.

Later that night, once she said she was able to process everything that had happened, she was moved to post her experience on Facebook, to share with her 400 or so friends, many of them with special needs children, about this simple act of kindness.

Message Received…

The reaction to her post, she says, was joyful. Someone suggested Kasi post it to her local community page, to find the man who smiled, to let him know how much the small gesture meant to her and how it moved her to tears. It wasn’t long after she posted it on the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, which has almost 8,000 members, that a screenshot of that post found its way to Melissa Leggett.

It was 5 a.m. when Melissa walked into the room where her husband was taking care of their adopted newborn and said: “Hey, I think this lady is talking about you.”

Bruce Leggett, who lives with his family in Meadow Pointe, frankly says that he finds all the attention he has received from friends and family a little embarrassing.

He says he simply heard a screech after entering the restaurant, but he did not find it unusual in a place that was packed with families, and certainly not to the ears of a father who has six kids all under the age of 10, including three he and Melissa adopted. In other words, he has had his share of nervous restaurant moments.

“I could see in the mom’s face she was a wreck,’’ Bruce said. “It was easy to see she was really concerned that (her daughter) was going to bother someone. It wasn’t even that bad. I told her it’s not that big of a deal.’’

Perhaps the person affected most by the gesture was Reeslyn, who attends Veterans Elementary in Wesley Chapel. Reeslyn also took part in the smiling and giggling that night. Many of Reeslyn’s childhood experiences are different because of Ragan, Kasi said. But on the way home after dinner and into the next morning, Reeslyn kept talking about the man and his wave.

“Going to a restaurant (for her) is not like everyone else’s experience, it’s not the same and can be very tough for Reeslyn,’’ Kasi says. “She wants normalcy, but she doesn’t want people to be mean to her sister. She gets worried about her. People can be mean.”

Not Bruce Leggett.

“It seems we have such a low tolerance for everything,’’ he said. “A lot of people have lost that neighborly touch. Everything has to be a big ordeal. A cute little girl made a noise…it happens. Sometimes, all you need to do is smile at them, make them laugh, and then, the whole thing is done.”

Kasi said she was most impressed with the way Bruce handled it with his son, Connor. Many people will try to shield their children from someone with a disability, she says, but the man with the smile and wave gave his son a lesson in empathy.

“I told him if she’s acting up, there’s a reason for it,’’ Bruce recalled. “He became less worried that she was making a noise and became more curious about what exactly was wrong. When we got home, we looked it up.”

Kasi has had a chance to thank Bruce. She said since moving to Wesley Chapel from Tallahassee, she has noticed that people are more understanding and patient. “It’s just different here,’’ she says.

Not perfect, she says, but for one night, and one moment, it was as close to perfect for her as it can be.

One smile and one wave from a father and a family who think we should all smile and wave more.

And, one appreciative mother who will never forget it.

Pssst! We are running short on passwords.

speak If you, like the Neighborhood News staff, enjoy singing, dancing, enjoying delicious food and sipping some great wine or even whiskey, why not join us at our VIP “Speakeasy” event before our two-year anniversary party at our office on Thursday, January 14, 2016.

It’s easy to sign up. The first thing you should do is go HERE!!!!!! and be one of the first 50 readers to register. Spots are filling up quickly.

When your registration is accepted, you’ll receive an email telling you the time the VIP event starts and the evening’s password to get in.

The food and fun continue when we open the doors to everyone at 7 p.m. that evening, but to sample gourmet treats from The Private Chef of Tampa, Peter Gambacorta himself (PrivateChefTampa.com), plus wine tastings of the same bottles of wine (there’s six different kinds) we gave as custom-printed gifts from our friends at Time for Wine (TimeforWine.net) this holiday season, as well as free whiskey and vodka tastings, karaoke by my buddy Gary Carmichael (HeartandSoulKaraoke.com), plus free drawings for great dining and other prizes.

It’s as easy as CLICKING ME to get signed up.