Snakes Alive
Hi everyone, I've just remembered a tale that my Mum was telling me on the phone the other day which I thought I would share with you.
For quite a long time now the city council where my Mum lives has been really short of funds, this has led to a decline in the refuse collection which only takes place every few weeks now , instead of once a week. Obviously this has led to an explosion in the rat population who are having a field day. Mother nature has a way with dealing with all of this however, because where you get rats in Africa, you are guaranteed to get snakes and loads of them, not something normally experienced in a city. So there was one lady whose two little dogs were bitten by a puff adder, they died of course, and numerous other incidents.
The most outrageous mishap occurred, when the son of a friend, of a friend, was staying over at someones house, they decided to sleep on the veranda as young boys do. In the middle of the night he felt something on him which stirred him from his sleep. You guessed it, it was a snake. He panicked, as anyone would do, and tried to get the damn thing off him, in the process, he was bitten on the hand, between the thumb and the first finger, and amongst all the confusion, the snake got away, they couldn't identify what type it was.
Needless to say, his parents rushed him to hospital and were horrified to be told that there was no anti-venom, hospitals there are really short of medicines and quite often you have to get hold of your own. In the meantime their son had passed into a coma, doesn't take long with a snake bite. The only thing the doctors could do was put him on a drip. He stayed in a coma for seven days and just woke up, wondering where he was.
For what it's worth, the doctors said he had had a lucky escape from death, maybe only a minute amount of venom had got into his system or maybe the snake was not a really poisonous one, however the flesh around the bite on his hand has gone all rotten, the tissues are destroyed and won't grow back again.
What a thing to happen, I am terrified of snakes and run a mile even if I see one, I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to share a bed with one.
For quite a long time now the city council where my Mum lives has been really short of funds, this has led to a decline in the refuse collection which only takes place every few weeks now , instead of once a week. Obviously this has led to an explosion in the rat population who are having a field day. Mother nature has a way with dealing with all of this however, because where you get rats in Africa, you are guaranteed to get snakes and loads of them, not something normally experienced in a city. So there was one lady whose two little dogs were bitten by a puff adder, they died of course, and numerous other incidents.
The most outrageous mishap occurred, when the son of a friend, of a friend, was staying over at someones house, they decided to sleep on the veranda as young boys do. In the middle of the night he felt something on him which stirred him from his sleep. You guessed it, it was a snake. He panicked, as anyone would do, and tried to get the damn thing off him, in the process, he was bitten on the hand, between the thumb and the first finger, and amongst all the confusion, the snake got away, they couldn't identify what type it was.
Needless to say, his parents rushed him to hospital and were horrified to be told that there was no anti-venom, hospitals there are really short of medicines and quite often you have to get hold of your own. In the meantime their son had passed into a coma, doesn't take long with a snake bite. The only thing the doctors could do was put him on a drip. He stayed in a coma for seven days and just woke up, wondering where he was.
For what it's worth, the doctors said he had had a lucky escape from death, maybe only a minute amount of venom had got into his system or maybe the snake was not a really poisonous one, however the flesh around the bite on his hand has gone all rotten, the tissues are destroyed and won't grow back again.
What a thing to happen, I am terrified of snakes and run a mile even if I see one, I can't imagine how terrifying it must be to share a bed with one.
posted by susi at 1:04 pm
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