Man reaches hospital with cobra coiled on his hand

By Rabindra Upreti,Bardibas, June 23: In a daring attempt to save his pet dog from a venomous snake, 40-year-old Purushottam Shrestha of Gauridanda, Bardibas-3, was bitten by a spectacled cobra, locally known as goman sanp. The incident took place around 10:30 pm on Saturday, when Shrestha found his dog barking persistently and went outside to check.

He witnessed a face-off between his dog and the snake. “I couldn’t bear to see the snake strike my beloved dog, so I grabbed it by the head,” Shrestha said. In the process, the snake bit the ring finger of his right hand. 

What followed left locals stunned, Shrestha arrived at the local Snakebite Treatment Centre in Gauridanda with the live snake still coiled around his hand. This, according to medical technician Bhola Chaudhary, was the first time that a patient had arrived not only with the snake that bit him, but with it still alive and on his hand.

Though bitten, Shrestha’s condition remains stable. Medical staff reported no significant signs of envenomation so far. “If a snake has just fed, on a mouse or frog, for example, it may not inject venom immediately upon biting,” Chaudhary explained. “If any venom was present, it may still take time for symptoms to show.”

As a precaution, Shrestha has been kept under observation for 24 hours.

The snake he brought has since been placed in a plastic container at the treatment centre, which has drawn a crowd of curious locals eager to see both man and the reptile.

Cases of snakebite have increased with the onset of monsoon. From mid-April to 21 June, 164 cases of bites from snakes, scorpions, and other venomous creatures have been admitted at the Gauridanda Snakebite Treatment Centre. One fatality was reported at local Janasewa Hospital.