A 15-month-old girl is recovering in a hospital after being bitten twice by a rattlesnake.

Jacquelyn Reed and her daughter Cara, whom she described as “the angel of the family,” were walking outside their Florence, Arizona home when it happened.

“I saw a piece of trash, picked it up, went to go throw it away, came back like under 10 seconds, and she was crying,” said Jacquelyn. Upon inspecting her daughter’s foot, she found “four puncture wounds on the top of her foot, in the little window of her little jelly shoe.”

The culprit was a diamondback rattlesnake, which Jacquelyn discovered hiding behind her daughter. Despite her fear, she acted quickly, rushing Cara to the nearest emergency room and calling ahead to ensure anti-venom was ready.

“Her foot, I mean, rapidly swole and was a nice shade of black within the 20 minutes it took to get to the ER,” said Jacquelyn. Both were then airlifted to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where Cara received 30 vials of antivenom.

A 15-month-old girl is recovering in a hospital after being bitten twice by a rattlesnake on her family’s property near Florence, Arizona. (KPNX, JACQUELYN REED, CNN NEWSOURCE)

Cara faced severe complications, including difficulty breathing. “She would have these episodes where she would drop her oxygen percentages down to, like, 25% or even less than 10%,” said Jacquelyn. Cara was intubated longer than anticipated but has recently started breathing on her own and regaining feeling in her foot.

Jacquelyn credits her quick response for saving her daughter’s life. “It was really about the response of moving quickly that I think, saved her life,” she said.

As Cara continues her recovery, her family remains hopeful. “Obviously I hope that we can get full function back, that she can, you know, be back to her normal, happy, like cute, adorable self,” Jacquelyn said. “We’ll see what we can do, and we’re just grateful we still have her with us.”