Desperate teen reports rattlesnake bite in remote NC forest — miles from road

A high school student fishing in North Carolina’s mountainous Pisgah National Forest found himself in a dangerous predicament when he was bitten by a large rattlesnake — more than 2 miles from the nearest road, the family says.

Zain Shah, 17, identified himself as the bite victim, and he believes his June 14 graduation from Chapel Hill High wouldn’t be happening had N.C. Emergency Management not mounted a multi-agency rescue that included the N.C. National Guard, the Charlotte Fire Department and Helo-Aquatic Search & Rescue.

“What started as a fun end-of-high-school fishing trip for my son and his buddy in the ... NC mountains turned deadly when he was bitten by a timber rattlesnake deep in the woods,” the teen’s father, Imran Shah, wrote on the N.C. Emergency Management Facebook page.

“I’m beyond grateful for the incredible (rescuers) who got to them in the middle of nowhere and saved his life! ... We are forever in your debt.”

The bite happened around 5 p.m. Monday, June 2, along the banks of Lost Cove Creek, and ended with the teen being flown by helicopter to Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, Zain Shah told McClatchy News in a phone interview.

Zain Shah and fishing buddy Kevin Foley, 18, came with a plan to fish until dark and then camp for the night, he says. The remote 500,000-acre forest, about a 100-mile drive northwest from Charlotte, is home to “mile-high peaks, cascading waterfalls, and heavily forested slopes,” according to the U.S. Forest Service.

“Once we got there and fished a bit, we started wading up river and went completely off the trail, wading back and forth along the river and fishing,” Zain Shah says.

“At the point where we were about to turn back, I stepped over log and as my foot landed, I felt a prick. It was painless. I looked down and see a rattlesnake sitting there. I think: ‘No way that just happened.’ But I rolled down my sock and see two red dots and blood coming out. I knew it was potentially deadly.”

He could not get cell service, but Foley’s phone worked, and they quickly called 911 and were told it was too dangerous for them to try walking back to their vehicle, Zain Shah says.

Timber rattlesnakes reach up to 7 feet (the average is 5 feet) and the venom is “potent enough to kill a human,” the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute reports. Among the symptoms are “an involuntary quivering of muscles,” internal bleeding and difficulty breathing, the National Library of Medicine says.

Zain Shah says it wasn’t long before his body began to tingle, followed by the feeling of his skin being pricked by pins and needles. There were also hints he was going into shock, he says.

It was roughly two hours later that Zain Shah was hoisted up to a Black Hawk helicopter with the help of Avery County first responders.

Once in a hospital, Zain Shah says his muted reaction to the venom hinted it may have been a “dry bite” with little or no venom. However, blood work done at 4 a.m. Tuesday revealed dangerous changes in his system could lead to uncontrolled bleeding, he says.

Twelve vials of antivenom were administered over three days in the hospital, he says. Shah says he photographed the “mean looking” snake so doctors could more easily identify the type of venom.

Dozens of people need to be thanked, he says, including the 911 operator who stayed on the phone with him for two hours, and particularly his fishing buddy, Kevin Foley, who served as a field nurse until Avery County EMTs arrived. Foley will also graduate from Chapel Hill High on June 14, Zain Shah says.

“All of them saved my life. I wouldn’t be here without the help of so many people,” Zain Shah says. “I have ventured alone into the mountains before, but I’ll never do that again. The buddy system only from now on, but this will not keep me from going back out there.”

This story was originally published June 9, 2025 at 7:39 AM with the headline "Desperate teen reports rattlesnake bite in remote NC forest — miles from road."