THE STATESMAN (Kolkata, India) 22 June 07 Deadly bite of superstition (Manoj Chaurasia)
Patna: A woman died after goading a deadly six-foot snake to bite her for a second time because she believed it would suck out the venom.
Doctors said the 40-year-old mother put her faith in the bizarre teachings of snake charmers, whose superstitions are widely believed in rural regions.
They said that had she received immediate medical treatment she might have survived.
Daresawa Devi, of Bhadas-Dhadhi village in Khagaria district, was bitten by the deadly krait while she slept on a jute sack on the floor of her hut on Wednesday night.
She woke up to see the six-foot poisonous krait slithering away. Instead of visiting a doctor, and despite being in intense pain, widowed Daresawa chased the snake for an hour, capturing it in a large tin box with the help of her son Chandan Kumar.
During the standoff she was bitten several more times by the reptile, whose venom is more lethal than a cobra.
The pair brought the snake in the box to Sadar Hospital but doctors were unable to save her.
Villagers said Daresawa had first consulted local snake charmers and only went to hospital as a second resort when they could not save her.
Dr Ramanand Paswan posted at the Sadar Hospital, Khagaria, said: “The snake bit different parts of her body as she fought valiantly to capture it in a tin box. She had heard from people in her village how snake charmers use the power of mantras to force the snake to go and suck venom from the person it has bitten. This cost her dearly as by the time she got hold of snake the venom had spread throughout her body.
“She was a victim of the superstitions widely prevalent in the countryside. Had she not wasted time and rushed to hospital immediately instead of losing time in consulting the snake-charmers, there was a chance she would have survived.”
Others suggested Daresawa had heard that doctors can only prescribe an antidote once they know what kind of snake it is.
The arrival of the snake in the hospital caused panic among the staff and visitors.
However, news of her feat in capturing the snake travelled fast and villagers from the area came to the hospital to see the woman who had fought a krait.
Pramod Kumar a member of the hospital staff said: “The snake was a six-foot-long young krait. You can image how brave the woman would have to be to have captured the snake in a box.” Sadly superstitions and “quack” medicine often take the place of conventional treatment in rural Bihar partly due to poor education and literacy rates.
In Khagaria district in the north of the state only 24 per cent of women and read and write despite six decades of “intensive” literacy campaigns.
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Deadly bite of superstition