NatGeo 'Snake Salvation' Pastor Dies from Snake Bite

The star of NatGeo’s Snake Salvation reality series has died as the result of a snake bite on his right hand.

Pastor Jamie Coots reportedly refused medical attention Saturday after suffering a bite from a poisonous snake while at his church in Middlesboro, KY. He died a few hours later.

The show debuted last Fall centered on two Pentecostal preachers who handle deadly snakes as part of a century-old Appalachian practice originating from a Bible passage that suggests those anointed by God will not be harmed by a poisonous snake bite. Coots had previously been bitten nine times and lost a finger to a rattlesnake bite … Last year Coots pled guilty to illegally possessing and transporting three rattlesnakes and two copperheads in Tennessee after the state seized them in a traffic stop as he was driving them from Alabama to Kentucky.