DAILY MAIL (London, UK) 19 March 11 Scars of woman who was bitten in the eye by a python at Mayfair club and almost blinded (Tamara Cohen)

It was supposed to be an exotic reminder of her trip to London.

But the photograph below brings back nothing but terrifying memories for Luciana Costa.

Moments after it was taken in a Mayfair cabaret bar, the python draped over her shoulders launched itself at her face and sank its fangs into her right eye.

Miss Costa, 35, was left in agony after the bite tore her cornea and punctured the skin on her lower eyelid.

Doctors later warned her she might lose her sight in the eye permanently. However, she is hoping to make a full recovery after two painful operations.

The drama happened after Miss Costa, who runs a property company in her native Brazil, visited the Cirque du Soir club with two friends who live in London. She had flown in to Britain last week for a conference.

The group were offered access to the club’s VIP area, where customers are entertained by an array of circus performers including fire eaters and snake charmers.

After seeing several people posing with the python, Miss Costa was asked if she too would like to have a photograph.

She said: ‘When the dancer suggested it, it seemed like fun. She put it around me, putting my hand just away from its head. Suddenly, after the camera flashed, it jumped up and I felt its teeth in my eye. Everybody gasped. I felt blood coming from my eye and a throbbing pain. I was terrified.’

However, Miss Costa said the reaction of club staff was not helpful. ‘The girl who gave me the snake just disappeared,’ she said. ‘Someone took me into the kitchen where they gave me a napkin, then just called me a taxi. They did not seem concerned at all.’

After taking a taxi to A&E in the early hours of last Friday Miss Costa was given a tetanus jab and told to return to the Western Eye Hospital in London later that morning.

Specialists there told her she needed urgent surgery to stitch her cornea and broke the news she may lose her sight. ‘I just cried and cried,’ said Miss Costa.

Although a first operation to put two stitches in her eye was unsuccessful, a second procedure worked.

Ali Mearza, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: ‘I have never seen anything like it. She is extremely lucky not to have lost her sight. The snake’s fangs sunk into the edge of her cornea and caused a haemorrhage inside and outside the eye. It could easily have become infected.’

Miss Costa, who is divorced with a daughter of nine and a son of seven in her home city of Natal, is now considering legal action against the club.

A spokesman for Cirque du Soir said: ‘We did not call an ambulance. She hadn’t had a heart attack, she was bleeding from her eye.’
Scars of woman who was bitten in the eye by a python at Mayfair club and almost blinded

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