GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A Brooks County child is fighting for her life after she was bitten by a rattlesnake Friday.

Maisy Lamica, 5, was bitten in Berrien County, said Cyndi Spell, her mother.

Spell said in a phone interview Monday that Maisy and her siblings were at their father’s house in Berrien County for a weekend visit when she and her sister ran over to where a pet cat was against a tree. They did not realize the cat had cornered a rattlesnake.

“It lunged out and bit her several times,” Spell said.

Her father called 911 and Maisy was rushed to South Georgia Medical Center; however, she went into anaphylactic shock — a severe allergic reaction to the snake’s venom — in the ambulance, her mother said.

SGMC life-flighted her to Shands Children’s Hospital in Gainesville, Fla., because the Valdosta hospital doesn’t have a pediatric intensive care unit, Spell said.

Spell has been with Maisy at Shands ever since.

At Shands, Maisy had been given 37 vials of antivenin as of Monday afternoon. Spell said the leg where the girl was bitten was the doctors’ biggest concern, having swollen so much they were considering opening her leg to relieve the pressure.

Maisy’s siblings — a sister, 8, and a pair of brothers, aged 9 and 7 — aren’t old enough to understand what’s going on, their mother said.

“They don’t understand why she’s (in Shands), why she has all the tubes,” Spell said.

Maisy had only recently graduated from kindergarten at North Brooks Elementary School.

“She’s going to make it,” her mother said. “It’s going to take a long time, but she’s going to make it.”

One of Spell’s friends set up a GoFundMe account Monday morning for Maisy with a goal of raising $5,000 to help the family. By 3:30 p.m., the account had already gathered more than $2,000 in donations.

The GoFundMe account for Maisy can be found at https://gofund.me/d5a19293.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.