Snake Handler Dies of Snake Bite: Jamie Coots, a snake-handling preacher who starred on National Geographic channel's reality TV show "Snake Salvation," died from bite after refusing anti-venom.  

Police said that emergency responders told Coots about the danger of not going to the hospital.Police say Coots refused, which is common among members of snake-handling churches.

Middlesboro, Kentucky Police Chief Jeff Sharpe said "Everybody that knows Mr. Coots knows what his belief is, and he had no intention of going to the hospital," 

Paul Williamson, a professor of psychology at Henderson State University in Arkansas who studies serpent handlers, said "Because serpent handling is not a practice that occurs in the mainstream, people tend to look at it as anomalous and strange. But to them, it's really no different from a Catholic who takes Communion. It's a powerful and immediate experience of God that gives meaning and purpose to their lives."

Williamson says there are about 2,000 snake handlers in a few hundred churches. Coots says most of the churches have less than 50 worshippers. 

There is a law in the state against using snakes in religious services, but law enforcement generally looks the other way.

Sharpe told media outlets that he had an idea of what was going on in the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church, but "made a decision not to involve this police department in somebody's church service."

It is illegal to handle poisonous snakes in religious services in Kentucky, but Coots was not charged because the courts ruled Coots should not be prosecuted for practicing his faith.

Sharpe explained "I'm not going to tell you that I didn't know what was going on. This is a small town. "But we're not going to bust into anybody's church on Sunday morning

'Snake Salvation' reality star Jamie Coots died from snakebite after being bitten during a church service Saturday evening. 

Coots pastored a small church in Middlesboro. Coots, was a third-generation snake handler. According to a news release from Middlesboro police, at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Paramedics were called to check on a report someone had been bitten by a snake at Coot's church. Coots had already gone home by the time the ambulance arrived.

According to police, an ambulance crew and firefighters tried to talk the reverend into going to the hospital.

The emergency crews left Coot's home at 9:10 p.m. Less than an hour later, authorities got a call that he was dead. Coots was pronounced dead at his home.

Jamie Coots was bitten on his right hand by a snake.

This wasn't the first time Coots had been bitten. Coots told the Herald-Leader that he nearly died from a rattlesnake bite in the early 1990s and again in 1998, when rattlesnake bit the middle finger of his right hand.

On both occasions Coots refused treatment, saying, in 1998, "It's a victory to God's people that the Lord seen fit to bring me through it."

The 1998 bite cost Coots his right middle finger.
In August 1995, Melinda Brown, 28, of Parrotsville, Tenn., died at Coots church being bitten by a rattlesnake. Her husband, John Wayne "Punkin" Brown, 34, also died of snake bite at a church in Alabama.

Snake handler Coots was one of two pastors featured on the National Geographic TV series "Snake Salvation." Before the series Coots was already prominent among the small, close-knit circle of snake-handling churches in Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, East Tennessee and Alabama, where worshippers believe faith will protect them from the venom of poisonous snakes.

There is no word on what will happen to the snake.