NEW STRAITS TIMES (Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia) 30 September 06 Soldier awakens from cobra-bite coma, says he's hungry (Alina Simon)
Alor Star, Kedah: A soldier, bitten by a king cobra on Thursday, woke up from his coma saying he was hungry.
Lans Koperal Rosli Haron, 35, whispered through his oxygen mask that he needed to eat which brought a smile to on his 64-year-old father Haron Nor’s face.
“I was so happy to hear him say that. He spoke haltingly and asked for food as he was hungry,” said the father at the Alor Star Hospital today.
“But the doctors said he was on drips and the poison in his blood stream needed to neutralised before he can be fed.
“We plan to have a kenduri with all his favourite food when he recovers.”
Keeping vigil with his father was Rosli’s wife Siti Aishah Ariffin, 28.
Rosli, attached to the 23rd Batallion of the Royal Malay Regiment in Gua Permai, Ipoh, was taking part in an operation in Gubir, about 100km from here when the snake bit him.
The father of two endured 10 agonising hours in the dense jungle before a helicopter air-lifted him to the hospital.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Saturday/NewsBreak/20060930180037/Article/index_html

NEW STRAITS TIMES (Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia) 29 September 06 Soldier, bitten by a cobra, now fighting for his life (Ahmad Fairuz Othman)
Alor Star: A soldier is fighting for his life after he was bitten by a king cobra while on duty near the Malaysia-Thailand border.
L-Kpl Rosli Haroon, 35, who was in an army operation at Gubir, about 100km from here, endured 10 hours of agony in the dense jungle as he waited for the rescue helicopter to reach him at first light.
Throughout the long night, his comrades put to good use their first-aid training as they tried to ease his suffering.
Some even resorted to using crushed bamboo shoots to treat the wound on his right leg.
The soldiers also killed the one-and-a-half-metre long king cobra so that it could be brought to the hospital to help doctors identify the type of snake which had bitten Rosli.
After what must have seemed like an eternity, a Nuri helicopter from the Air Force base in Butterworth finally reached the group at 7.50am and flew Rosli to the Alor Star hospital.
Rosli, who is married with two young children, is on a ventilator at the hospital's cardiology care unit (CCU).
The soldier from the 23rd Battalion of the Royal Malay Army Regiment in Gua Permai, Ipoh, was bitten by the king cobra about 9.45pm last night as he was taking his ablutions at a stream.
As the soldiers were on foot, they had no choice but to wait for the rescue helicopter.
Commander of the Sixth Infantry Brigade, Brigedier Jeneral Mohd Noor Daud, who visited Rosli at the CCU today, said the helicopter could only reach Rosli in the morning as standard procedures did not allow it to fly at night.
Rosli was among 200 soldiers on a two-month operation near the Malaysia-Thailand border.
His commanding officer Lt-Kol Mohd Darawi Mohd Saad said the group had spent the past two weeks in the jungle and was scheduled to return to camp on Nov 5.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Friday/NewsBreak/20060929173652/Article/index_html

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]