Toddler bites Cobra to death
Two-year-old Govinda Kumar was playing in his home in Bankatwa, a village in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, when he spotted the three-foot snake and grabbed it.
The snake then coiled itself around the toddler's tiny hands, but instead of screaming, the child put the snake's head in its mouth and clenched his jaw, according to Mateshwari Devi, the boy's grandmother.
Govinda was knocked unconscious after ingesting some of the venom, but was treated in hospital and has since been discharged.
The snake died on the spot.
Ms Devi said: 'I was moving firewood near the house and the cobra came out. The child perhaps saw the snake moving and caught hold of it.
'We rushed towards the boy and saw he had taken the cobra's head into his mouth. We then separated the cobra from his mouth and hands.'
She added: 'The cobra died on the spot, while the child fell unconscious.'
The family rushed him to a nearby health centre for treatment. He was later transferred to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Bettiah for specialist care.
Doctors at the paediatrics department of the GMCH Bettiah said they receive five to six snake bite cases every month during the rainy season but this was the first time they have seen such a 'highly unusual case' where a child has bitten and eaten part of the cobra.
Cobras are highly venomous snakes, with their bites capable of causing severe tissue damage and potentially death.
Dr Saurab Kumar, associate professor in the GMCH Bettiah's pediatrics department, told The Telegraph: 'I received the child active and alert but his mouth and face was swollen because of the reaction to the venom in the oral cavity.'
'We were surprised and cross-checked with his parents multiple times to ensure the child was not bitten by the cobra to rule out venom had not gone into his bloodstream. They told us he bit the cobra and the snake died on the spot.'
He continued: 'The child had eaten a part of the cobra and the venom had gone into his digestive tract, unlike in the cases where the cobra bites the person and venom goes into blood and triggers neurotoxicity.
'We gave him anti-allergy medicine and kept him under watch. As he didn't develop any symptoms for 48 hours, we discharged the child on Saturday.'
Dr Kumar said the cobra had died apparently because of the trauma to the head and mouth from the child's bite.
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