ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. -- A Palm Coast man bitten by a snake at Wal-Mart on U.S. 1 South in St. Augustine Tuesday afternoon said he has hired an attorney and is planning on suing the retail giant. Jeriel Joiner is still in ICU at Shands-Jacksonville after having a bad reaction to antivenom medication.

Joiner said he is meeting with his lawyer on Thursday at the hospital to discuss filing a lawsuit.

Joiner said the swelling from the allergic reaction has spread from his hand all the way down to his elbow. On Wednesday, only his hand and part of his forearm were swollen.

Rhiannon Gross, Joiner's fiancée, talked to Channel 4's Vickie Pierre Thursday.

"It angers me," she said. "I don't know if I expect anything other than him just getting well. I want him home."

Gross said she was there with their 2-month-old son when the snake bit Joiner.

"Money right now to me is not an issue," she said. "I'm more angry that he can't be home with me. I'm on maternity leave. He was the only one working."

Wal-Mart said it has not been served with a lawsuit and so can't comment further.

The store said it is checking with the victim on a regular basis, and added that the safety of its customers and employees is very important.

According to the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office report, a pygmy rattlesnake bit Joiner, 27, on the hand as he reached under a display of ferns to retrieve a baby bottle that had fallen.

Witnesses said the seven-inch snake was still on Joiner's pinky finger when he pulled his hand out.

Jeremy Robshaw of St. Johns County Fire-Rescue said firefighters arrived at the garden center of Wal-Mart at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and took Joiner to Flagler Hospital for treatment. He was then transferred to Shands, where he was in the intensive care unit at midday Wednesday.

Joiner told Channel 4's Vickie Pierre that his hand has swollen to the size of a baseball glove.

"The skin is starting to die around the wound. You can see the two puncture wounds," Joiner told said.

Firefighters confiscated the snake and positively identified it as a pygmy rattlesnake.

Joiner said he didn't even think about the snake being venomous until his finger started to burn and he noticed a small rattle at the end of the tail.

"I started immediately getting hot, I was breaking out in hives, it was getting hard to breathe," Joiner said.

Ashley Hardie of Wal-Mart's corporate office said the garden center of the St. Augustine store was closed off while animal control officials and a wildlife expert combed the area looking for any other snakes. She said safety of customers is Wal-Mart's top priority.

Wal-Mart said the store reopened the garden center as of 1 p.m. Wednesday after being cleared by wildlife experts.

Investigators said they don't know where the snake came from.

Pygmy rattlesnakes are found across the southeastern United States and, while quite reclusive, are most commonly encountered by humans in late summer. These snakes can are generally 14 to 25 inches long and feed primarily on mice, lizards, insects and spiders. Their rattle is often so small that people do not hear it when it sounds a warning.

In the past three years, bites by snakes have been reported at Wal-Mart garden centers in Viera, Sanford, and Pembroke Pines, Fla. In May 2006, a woman reported being bitten by a black snake at a Wal-Mart in Jacksonville.