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First Posted: 5/18/2010
By Bill O’Boyle boboyle@www.timesleader.comStaff Writer
PITTSTON – Coincidence brought Postman Joe Clark to the home of Cassandra Villano last year, but his heroism may have saved her life.
Villano had just been bitten by a poisonous copperhead snake in her backyard when Clark, delivering mail on his normal day off, passed by and jumped into action by sucking out the venom.
Clark, 60, will be honored for his valor by the U.S. Postal Service this week at a “Hero Employee Recognition Luncheon” in Scranton along with six other postal employees who performed heroic acts in 2009.
Clark has been a rural letter carrier for 16 years and said he has watched Villano, now 19, grow up as he delivered mail to her Pittston Township home.
On May 16, 2009, Clark was called in on his off day to work his postal route, so he was a little late getting started. Had he been on time, he said he probably never would had seen Villano in the minutes after she was bitten.
And Villano will be the first to tell you she doesn’t want to think about what might have happened.
“If it wasn’t for him, I might not be here today,” Villano said.
Villano said she was weeding in her yard when she reached under her family’s boat and she felt something clamp onto her hand. She brought her hand out from under the boat and the copperhead was attached. She said she immediately began to feel sick.
It wasn’t a new experience for Villano – she’d been bitten by a copperhead three times before over the last five years. This was worse – much worse, she said.
“I was really woozy and I was going in and out of consciousness,” she said. “The pain kept getting worse – it was intense.”
That’s when Clark happened along. When he saw Villano go down, he ran to her aid.
Villano’s parents – Eric and Melissa Villano of Pittston Township – called 911. Clark talked to a dispatcher who told him it wouldn’t hurt to try sucking the venom out of the wound on Villano’s hand.
“It tasted kind of almondy,” Clark said. “But I really didn’t keep it in my mouth for long – I kept spitting it out.”
Clark said he never hesitated – he knew Villano was in trouble and he acted.
“I did what I had to do,” he said.
Bob Grasso, the acting Officer in Charge at the Pittston Post Office, said he hasn’t known Clark very long but said he is a very humble guy.
“The fact is, Joe Clark is a hero,” Grasso said. “And this is his time to be thanked. There are many untold stories of postal workers who come to the aid of customers on their routes.”
So now Villano can continue taking classes at Luzerne County Community College and work toward her goal of becoming a lawyer – or maybe a journalist. And she won’t be doing any more weeding in her backyard near the creek where the copperheads apparently likes to sunbathe.
Villano’s parents said they will always be indebted to Clark for doing what he did. “He’s a pretty brave guy,” Eric said. “I didn’t know what to do; we were all in a state of panic. Joe said call 911 and I did. Then he put himself in harm’s way by sucking the venom out of my daughter’s hand.”
Melissa Villano said she has always baked cookies and other goodies for Clark. She said he can expect more – much more – of the same in the future. “There’s a special bond between us now,” she said. “What he did far exceeds the call of duty.”