Bringing a Girl Back from the Dead - A Doctor’s Miracle Cure of Snakebite!

For an Army man whether he is in service or ex-service, every job is a lot like a military  operation. It takes discipline, foresight, research, strategy, and, if done right, ends in total victory. The 10th of July 1982 was my first day  in Military Hospital, Panagarh. A 12 year old girl was my first patient, rescued from the jaws of  death !! 

Panagarh, meaning the house of snakes is a cantonment in Burdwan district of West Bengal. Paddy fields, palm trees, marshy swamps, dense bushy areas as well as patches of barren lands welcome you enroute to the Cantonment. During my four years of service as Anesthesiologist in the Military Hospital, Panagarh, I might have treated at least 3 fatal snake bite cases per week. Cobras, Kraits and Vipers are in abundance and one may find it anywhere. In the cantonment, all the barracks/houses are provided with snake barriers at the doors and anti-snake trenches around the houses. Yet, these ‘lords of the land’ big and small, intrude into the houses through drainage holes in the bathrooms, cracks on walls, gaps under the tiled/asbestos roofs or crossed over the barriers at the doors in an authoritarian way. I have killed 3 vipers and 2 cobras from my residence during three and half years of my service there.  .

                                              Banded Krait

On 10th July 1982, by afternoon I reached Panagarh by train with family on transfer from Lucknow and was taken to guest room in the Officer’s Mess. After lunch we were retiring due to the tedious journey. Around 3 PM, I could hear somebody knocking at the doors. On response, the visitor informed me, “Havildar Mangat Ram Sir….Call from MI room …Sir.  A 12 yr old girl almost dead due to snake bite is brought from Shantiniketan to the casualty along with a live deadly King Cobra in a matka, Sir.”

I got ready and followed him. Within 2 to 3 minutes we reached the MI room. On examination, the girl was found pulseless. She was brought to the hospital more than 12 hours after the snake bite. When the Duty Medical officer enquired about the outcome of the patient I quipped to wait and see. And we started “Operation King Cobra.”

Taking stock of the situation quickly, I asked the Nursing Assistant to get the Boyle's machine from the Operation Theater and injection neostigmine and atropine. With a quizzical look (what the Anesthesiologist is going to do with an anesthetic machine in a snake bite case?), he ran to the O.T and within 2 to 3 minutes he brought the machine, medicines and an OT assistant.

                                            BOYLE’S MACHINE

        By then, I had started an intravenous infusion and administered anti-snake venom. The patient was intubated, connected to the Boyles machine and ventilated with 100% oxygen followed by neostigmine and atropine, etc. Within 3 to 4 minutes the patient sat up on the bed and pulled the endotracheal tube out. Since there was no need of further intubation, the patient was given oxygen through nasal catheter. Seeing the patient conscious, her relatives, whole medical staff and almost half of the villagers who accompanied the patient lifted me and felicitated me.

After the patient’s condition got stabilized, I came to know from her relatives that she was bitten by the cobra around 3 A.M and was being treated with “jadu mantra”. On enquiring why the live snake was also brought along, they answered that if the snake is killed the victim might not survive. Respecting their sentiments and with their permission I etherised the reptile and subsequently embalmed it with formalin.

Since civilians are not entitled for admission, the patient was looked after throughout the night in the casualty and was sent home around 10 A.M next day. And, the news of the ‘dead’ coming alive spread like wild fire.

In medical emergencies, a stranger to a new set up picks up a machine which contains most lifesaving equipments. Boyle’s machine is one of such type in which airways, laryngoscope, endotracheal tube, oxygen cylinders, etc are readily available along with facilities for artificial ventilation. Unacquainted with the facilities there, I got the Boyle’s machine first to the scene.

 The “Operation King Cobra” thus continued including krait bites as well. Some snake bite cases needed prolonged artificial ventilation. Such patients had to be connected to OIB (Oxford Inflating Bellows). Due to shortage of manpower their   relatives were taught to operate the machine until the patient recovered.

                                                           OIB

        People of Panagarh and its suburbs were very superstitious regarding snake bites. They believed more in “jadu - mantra” than modern treatment. Hence, mortality from snake bite used to be quite high there. After a series of revivals from fatal snake bites by me, they started reposing trust in the treatment so much so that after landing at the casualty with snake bites, if I was not found there, they would straight way come to my residence seeking my intervention. Thus, the superstitious people become strong believers of modern medicine. As luck would have it there was not a single death in the area from snake bite till I was there. Every exercise was a victory, true to the military saying, "Invincible during peace and invisible during war".

‘Operation king Cobra’ was the longest humanitarian service during my military career which lasted till 2nd February, 1986, the day I bade goodbye to Panagarh and to the Army, fully content with the hearty farewell those villagers extended, queued up on the platform at the railway station with folded hands .Hats off to them, I moved on,  waving my hands in reciprocation.

[Dr. (Major) B. C. Nayak is an Anaesthetist who did his MBBS from MKCG Medical College, Berhampur, Odisha. He is an MD from the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and an FCCP from the College of Chest Physicians New Delhi. He served in Indian Army for ten years (1975-1985) and had a stint of five years in the Royal Army of Muscat. Since 1993 he is working as the Chief Consultant Anaesthetist, Emergency and Critical Care Medicine at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital, Cochin]