The story has a semi-biblical tone: A man and woman together in a garden come across a serpent. The serpent awakens them to their own mortality and their lives are changed forever.But that's where the similarities end, because in this story, the man grabbed a shovel to decapitate the snake—a 4-foot-long Western diamondback rattlesnake—after it spooked his wife. And when he went to pick up the severed head, it sank its fangs into his flesh and released a near deadly dose of venom.

About two miles into the drive to the hospital her husband began having seizures, lost his vision and, unknown to them, began bleeding internally. So she met up with an ambulance and then a helicopter, which flew the 40-year-old to the hospital as his organs were already shutting down.

"A severed viper head certainly can deliver a dangerous bite, as can the unsecured head of a recently 'killed' snake," Harry Greene, a biology professor at Cornell University, told NPR.Greene suspects he was injected with a powerful dose of venom. Living snakes typically strike quickly and rear back from whatever threat they perceive, but because the one in this instance was dead, it most likely latched on until someone forcibly removed it.

Possible Preaching Angles: Temptation—dangers of; Satan—He is like a snake with a severed head. The cross has stripped him of life but he still has limited power to hurt and destroy.