'We Couldn't Stop It': Venomous Copperhead Snake Bites 2-Year-Old Boy

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (CBS Local) -- A 2-year-old boy is recovering after a life-threatening bite from a copperhead snake, according to doctors in South Carolina.

The parents of Atlas Johnson were walking down their son down the driveway in Horry County when the snake attacked.

"Struck him in the back of the leg, and I handed him off to his mother and we saw in the light the two fang marks," his father, Gregory Johnson, told WMBF. "I took my light and saw that it was a copperhead and we rushed him to the hospital as fast as we could."

Doctors monitored Johnson for four hours, gave him some Benadryl and released him.

The next day, however, the swelling and discoloration of Atlas' leg was worse so they rushed him back to the hospital.

This time, the hospital gave the child Crofab, a type of anti-venom used to treat a person who has been bitten by a venomous snake, two separate times over a 24-hour period.

"The next morning, his foot looked amazing compared to it being black when we were at the hospital," Taylor Gibson, Atlas' mother, said.

Atlas is doing much better now and is back to running around. But his parents are not letting him out of their sight.

"I'm still terrified to let him out in the grass," Gibson said. "Because even though he was one step ahead of him and one step behind him, we couldn't stop it," Gibson said.