Fearless toddler, 2, bites COBRA to death after venomous snake attacked him
Courageous two-year-old Govinda Kumar had been playing at his home in the state of Bihar when the snake appeared.
4
4
The three-foot cobra began to coil around the toddler's hands when he grabbed it.
But the child did not scream, instead biting down on the venomous snake's head, according to his grandmother Mateshwari Devi.
She 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.
"The cobra died on the spot, while the child fell unconscious."
Govinda passed out due to the snake's venom - which he had ingested when he bit the serpent.
But the venom's effects were said to be mild - he was treated at hospital and has since been discharged.
He was initially rushed to a nearby health centre in the incident's immediate aftermath, after which he was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Bettiah for specialist care.
Air India passenger plane catches fire on runway in SECOND airline panic in 24hrs just weeks on from crash disaster
The GMCH Bettiah receives five or six snake bite cases each month, according to reports.
But this was the first time its team had seen a child bite and kill a serpent.
"Timely treatment saved Govinda's life," Saurabh Kumar, a doctor of the government hospital, told the Times of India.
Cobra bites are highly dangerous to humans, and can cause severe tissue damage and 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 that venom had not gone into his bloodstream.
"They told us he bit the cobra and the snake died on the spot."
The child had eaten part of the cobra and the venom had entered his digestive tract, Dr Kumar added.
"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."
The snake apparently died due to trauma caused by the child's bite, Dr Kumar said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Japanese walking: how the latest fitness trend shapes up
At first there was yoga. Then, there was pilates. Now, social media fitness fanatics have turned to a new exercise trend: Japanese walking. The simple workout, also known as Nihon Aruki in its homeland, boasts a range of health benefits, according to researchers. The exercise involves interval-style bursts of fast and slow walking, alternating between walking at a higher intensity for three minutes and a lower intensity for the next three. The researchers capped the fast intervals at three minutes because that was the point at which many older volunteers started to feel tired. During the fast intervals, people should aim to take longer strides than during the slow intervals. Engaging the arms by bending them at the elbows and swinging them with each step is recommended as a way to help maintain proper form during longer strides. It was developed by Professor Hiroshi Nose and Associate Professor Shizue Masuki at Shinshu University in Matsumoto, Japan, as a way to help elderly citizens get the health benefits experienced by athletes undertaking high-intensity interval training. According to the researchers, the high-intensity walking should be undertaken at a speed where holding a normal conversation is slightly difficult. The lower intensity pace should be light, and normal conversation should be possible. Their initial research, conducted in 2007, compared 'Japanese walking' with normal walking at a continuous speed, for 8,000 steps per day. Those who participated in the study found that those walking at varying speeds experienced weight loss and lower blood pressure. • Am I fit for my age? Exercises for your 30s to your 70s Both leg strength and physical fitness also improved for those undertaking the Japanese walking programme. A later study, conducted by the same researchers in 2018, found that, over a ten-year period, those who did interval walking reported fewer age-related declines in their muscle power and aerobic capacity. Some experts have, however, said that simply walking more, and at more rigorous speeds could boost health, and that this specific walking regime may therefore not have any particular benefits. 'Achieving a certain number of steps per day has also been shown to help people live longer,' Sean Pymer, an Academic Clinical Exercise Physiologist at the University of Hull wrote in The Conversation. • How to hit peak fitness over 40: the midlife rules 'For those aged 60 and older, the target should be around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day and 8,000 to 10,000 for those aged under 60. Similar evidence does not appear to exist for Japanese walking … yet,' he continued. 'So is this walking trend really the be-all and end-all? Or does it matter less about what exercise you do and more about how often and how hard you do it? The answer is likely to be the latter … We should focus on ensuring we perform regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and make it habitual. If that activity happens to be Japanese walking, then it's a worthwhile choice.' Some scientists, however, suggest the original Japanese study may have been skewed by the decision to only monitor the high-intensity group with accelerometers, not the moderate intensity group. Dr Helga Van Herle, a cardiologist at the University of South Carolina, has said this may have triggered the Hawthorne effect — participants walking faster than they otherwise would have because they knew they were being watched. Even so, experts generally agree that vigorous bursts of activity, even for short periods, are likely to be beneficial. Compared with more classic forms of high-intensity interval training, interval walking is more approachable for some groups, especially those who haven't exercised in a while or who are recovering from injuries that make activities such as running difficult.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Matcha could have little-known side effect that could affect your blood
Nutritionists warn that excessive consumption of matcha, a popular Japanese green tea, can contribute to iron deficiency. The polyphenols in matcha, such as catechins and tannins, bind to non-haem iron found in plant-based foods, significantly reducing its absorption in the body. Vegetarians and vegans are particularly susceptible to this risk as their diets primarily rely on non-haem iron sources like lentils, tofu, and leafy greens. To mitigate the risk of iron deficiency, it is advised to avoid drinking matcha with meals, especially for those with plant-based diets or who are already iron deficient. Iron deficiency, also known as anaemia, can lead to symptoms such as tiredness, shortness of breath, and pale skin, and is common among teenage girls, vegans, and vegetarians.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Girl, 3, suffers dangerous reaction after being exposed to trans dad's hormone drugs
A toddler grew breasts and began experiencing signs of early puberty after she was accidentally exposed to her transgender father's hormone therapy. The unnamed child, 3, was brought to doctors in Denmark after showing signs of extremely early puberty that had persisted for six months, including enlarged breasts and nipples and premature vaginal discharge. Her father told physicians the pair had frequent skin-to-skin contact, a key part of bonding. The parent, however, was also undergoing estrogen therapy as part of a gender transition from man to woman. The father used estrogen cream across their body, including chest, abdomen, shoulders and thighs daily. Doctors warned that the girl had been absorbing the estrogen, a female sex hormone, from the skin contact, triggering premature puberty. This set off a cascade of potentially dangerous side effects. Premature puberty in females, before the ages of eight years, can lead to a higher risk of certain cancers, including breast and endometrial cancers, mental health problems, behavioral issues, eating disorders and substance abuse. The father had used a spray containing 6.12mg of estradiol, the most potent form of estrogen, on both forearms daily. But seven months before the child was taken to the doctor, the father had switched to using a 3.75mg estradiol gel. Along with enlarged breasts and nipples as a result of the exposure, an ultrasound revealed her uterus and endometrium, or lining of the uterus, had increased to a size seen in older females. Her bone age was estimated to be 7 years old, while she was 3ft 6in tall and weighed 43lbs, the doctors reported. The average three-year-old in the US is between 2ft 10in and 3ft 4in tall and weighs around 26 to 38lbs. To treat the case, doctors asked the father to switch from rubbing in a gel to using a patch on the skin to receive estrogen. They reported that after the change was made the girl experienced a regression of breast development, and a normalization of growth speed and pelvic size. In the study, the researchers from Aalborg University Hospital said: 'Transgender persons should be thoroughly informed of the risk of transmission of transdermal hormones and be advised to wash hands, use gloves and avoid skin contact shortly after hormone application. 'Patients with children must be warned of the risk and Gender Clinics should consider the possibility of prescribing alternative routes of administration such as tablets or patches in high-risk patients.' About 1.5million Americans identify as transgender, although it is not clear how many of these are parents or use estrogen gel. Women may also use estrogen gel to combat symptoms of the menopause, although this tends to be at lower doses. In a similar case revealed in Sweden last month, a 10-month-old baby girl grew a 'micropenis' after she was exposed to her father's testosterone. Her father had been using the testosterone to boost levels of the hormone, and rubbing it into his body using a gel. He was also practicing skin-to-skin contact with his baby, leading the testosterone to be passed to the infant. Revealing the case from 2023 in a report in a journal, the team warned parents should be 'thoroughly informed' of the risks of transferring hormones to their children. They advised washing hands after the application of hormones, wearing gloves, and avoiding close contact immediately after use. In high risk cases, they added, clinics providing care for transgender patients should consider alternative treatments, such as tablets or patches.
