Colorado Rockies relief pitcher John Axford won’t be around the Rockies for quite some time. Axford’s 2-year-old son Jameson was bit by a snake in Arizona, where Axford was for Rockies Spring Training. Axford said his son had surgery on Monday, which was also the Rockies opening day versus the Brewers. Prior to Sunday’s game, the Rockies put Axford on their family emergency list, allowing Axford to attend to his son. Jameson will board a flight to Denver to receive further treatment soon.

“We still have a long road, a long process to go,” John Axford said. “But at least I’ll be able to be closer to him.”

When Jameson underwent surgery to remove a tissue from the bitten area, Axford and his wife, Nicole, thought that it wouldn’t be to severe. It turns out they were unfortunately wrong.

“The necrotic tissue on his foot ended up being worse than we thought,” said Axford. “There was a lot of infection in there, and it was a staph infection. The tissue they thought was going to be good turned out to not be great. His foot is in pretty rough shape in spots.”

Axford also praised the doctors for all the work they have done to treat his son, and letting him know how his son was doing while he was in Milwaukee and Chicago the past week.

“The doctors in Arizona have been amazing. They’ve texted me, called me, keeping me updated with everything,” Axford said. “They told me they all agreed that this was the worst rattlesnake bite they’d seen in the area. It’s pretty unfortunate that it went that way for him, but it was fortunate that it was in the area that it was, on his foot, not somewhere else on his body, especially with the damage that was done.”

Since Axford’s son is only two years of age, Axford is hopeful that his son won’t remember the incident very much at all.

“Hopefully because he is 2 he’ll be able to erase it from his memory. But he’ll have an incredible scar on his foot to show people, and he’ll have the story from us,” Axford said.

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