Discovery Channel Producer Shows Off Unbelievably Gross Snake Bite On Foot
Redeem now On Tuesday, "Man vs. Wild" host Bear Grylls tweeted an utterly disgusting photo of his producer's snake-bitten foot.
The identity of the man whose foot bones were exposed after the terrible bite has finally been revealed.
Steve Rankin, a producer on the upcoming Discovery show "Naked and Afraid," tells TMZ what happened that fateful day:
"I was scouting locations in Costa Rica ... As I was traversing through some deep jungle I was bitten on the foot by a Fer-de-Lance. It's one of the deadliest snakes in the world and the fangs went right through my boot."
Rankin says his production team "hustled him for two miles on a makeshift stretcher, drove to a helipad and had him airlifted to a San Jose hospital ... where he got antivenom and antibiotics," according to TMZ.
But once there, things went horribly wrong. [STOP READING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE GRAPHIC PHOTOS.]
"About five days later the flesh in my foot had started to rot," said Rankin, explaining that surgeons in Costa Rica had to cut away a serious chunk of his foot.
Rankin was then rushed to L.A. for skin grafts, but tells the site he's recovering just fine.
Rankin has been updating his progress on his Twitter account:
Thanks everyone for your good wishes. Skin graft came from my thigh so half of my quad is on my foot the other half is on my leg!
— stephen rankin (@steve_rankin) May 1, 2013Here's what Rankin's foot looked like after the bite:
our man vs wild producer suffering from a brutal snake bite - fighting the injury with courage. twitter.com/BearGrylls/sta…
— Bear Grylls (@BearGrylls) April 30, 2013And here's the adventurous producer's foot after the skin graft:
@beargrylls thanks Bear for your good wishes. Slightly less gruesome pic post surgery! twitter.com/steve_rankin/s…
— stephen rankin (@steve_rankin) April 30, 2013WARNING. Here's one for the gore fans. The flesh has just started to necrotise and ooze a bit. Day 6 post bite. twitter.com/steve_rankin/s…
— stephen rankin (@steve_rankin) May 1, 2013
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