Snake-handling pastor dies from bite

A West Virginia minister has died from a timber rattlesnake bite he sustained during a snake-handling service, a hospital says. Mark "Mack" Wolford, 44, pastor of Full Gospel Apostolic House of the Lord Jesus in Matoaka, died Monday at Bluefield Regional Medical Center, The Register-Herald of Beckley reported. He was brought to the hospital late Sunday night. Wolford's father died from a snake-handling bite, The Charleston Daily mail said. Wolford was bitten Sunday afternoon during a service at Panther State Forest. A nursing supervisor said he arrived at the hospital hours later. "He was a snake handler," the supervisor told the newspaper. "It looked like it happened maybe during church, but by the time he got here, it was a bad situation." Snake-handling is not banned in West Virginia, and the supervisor said the medical center gets "quite a few bites" resulting from the practice. It comes from a passage in the Gospel of St. Mark in which Jesus says the baptized and saved "shall take up serpents." Kate Fowler, who is working on a documentary about snake handling, said Wolford kept his rattlesnake, Sheba, at his home. She said Wolford told her he knew he would eventually die from a snake bite.