Palghar: Sailor Dies Of Snake Bite, Third Case In 4 Months

A 30-year-old man working on a fishing boat died after being bitten by a snake in Palghar on Sunday, taking the snakebite toll to three in the last four months in the district.

Birju Mandal, working in Wadrai village, had visited Mahim Primary Health Center (PHC) on September 17 with the complaint of a rat bite at 6.30pm. As doctors observed that the condition of the patient was deteriorating, he was given an anti-venom injection. However, when no improvement was seen, PHC doctors referred Mandal to Palghar Rural Hospital but he soon succumbed.

Taluka health officer Dr Tanveer Sheikh told the Free Press Journal that the patient was late in reaching the facility after the bite. The treatment given to the patient was in anticipation of a poisonous snake bite.

A seven-year-old girl succumbed to snakebite in tribal Mokhada on May 16. On July 27, a 28-year-old woman was bitten by a snake and she died within seven hours. The district has been plagued by inadequate anti-venom injections and casual approach of the medical institutions.

Last month, though, two patients were saved at the same PHC after being bitten by snakes in separate incidents. While a 14-year-old bitten by a common krait on August 1 could walk home within two days after treatment, a 22-year-old man was revived after cardiopulmonary resuscitation after he approached the PHC on his within an hour of being bitten by a cobra in a field.