Poor guy! Feeding live scares the heck out of me. I've been feeding live (and frozen) over the past 10 years and didn't have my first snake injury until about 3 months ago. It is dangerous even if you do keep an eye on them - if the snake strikes the wrong spot the rat could easily latch on somewhere. In my case, my female Pied got bit right on the neck by a rat. It scared me so bad but luckily she was perfectly fine and healed quickly... Nothing like your poor boy. But it did make me think of how easily a snake can lose an eye to a rat. So now if I have to feed larger live rats I clip their teeth before offering them to the snake. It is perfectly painless to clip the teeth. I also breed my own feeders and only breed docile rats so that helps a little, they aren't prone to attacking and are well-fed. Here is to a speedy recovery!