Thanks to all my readers for the bouquets and brick bats on my last blog on Vaccination in the series of Live Life Save Life. Trust wherever you are in the world you have got vaccinated at least once to protect yourselves and others. My sole idea behind writing these blogs is to reach out to a lot of people in the world. Requesting all the readers to share the blogs with all your friends and relatives so that every family can have a life saver in their home.

In this blog Jaggy and Maggie will discuss First aid for Snake bite. Though it is a known fact that snakes generally don’t bite people unless provoked or threatened yet we get frightened on seeing one. What to do if you get bitten? Jaggy and Maggie take over to tell us exactly that.

Maggie: “Hello Jaggy How are you”?

Jaggy: “I am doing great Maggie and feel on top of the world”.

Maggie: “Thanks to you Jaggy I have got my first dose of Vaccination”.

Jaggy: “Great to hear that”.

Maggie: “As you are a trained first aider, I wanted to ask you something”?

Jaggy: “Go ahead and just ask”.

Maggie: “Was planning to go on a trekking trip with my friends in a national park and would like to know what to do in case of a Snake Bite”.

Jaggy: “Nice to know that. While trekking it is not about the planning and the equipment but knowing first aid too. For when you venture into the woods snakes can be around”.

Maggie: “That’s why I would like to know what to do”?

Jaggy: “Let me begin by saying that all snakes are not Venomous. Only a few are and they differ from place to place”.

Maggi: “Can you elaborate a little more”?

Jaggy: “Sure. Venomous snakes across the world belong to families like Elapidae, Viperidae, Atractspididae, and Colibridae”.

Maggie: “Come on Jaggy this is not a biological lesson. I want to know what to do when they bite and especially in India”.

Jaggy: “I was just giving you a basic intro but since you have asked me clearly shall get straight to the point”.

Maggie: “You better”.

Jaggy: “Ok. There are 5 types of Venomous snakes in India and they are”
1. The Common Cobra
2. The Krait
3. Russel Viper
4. Saw scaled Viper
5. The King Cobra

Maggie: “Oh! I see. Only 5 types. I thought there are many”.

Jaggy: “There are a lot of other venomous and deadly snakes like Inland Taipan, Black Mamba, and the Gabon Viper but they are not found in the Indian Sub-Continent”.

Maggie: “How deadly is the venom if any one of these snakes, bite”?

Jaggy: “It depends on what bites you. The venom is either neuro toxin, hemotoxin or cytotoxin. The Cobra and krait venom is neurotoxin, the vipers hemotoxin and the king cobra both neurotoxin and cardiotoxin. Neurotoxin means the venom attacks the nervous system, hemotoxin attacks the cardiovascular system and the cytotoxin attacks specific cell sites”.

Maggie: “It means the venom from different snakes, attack and destroy various systems in the human body”.

Jaggy: “Correct”.

Maggie: “How is the venom injected into the body”?

Jaggy: “The venom is injected through the fangs of a venomous snake, and they differ according to the species. So one needs to look for the fang marks at the site of the bite”.

Maggie: “How do we do that”?

Jaggy: “You need to look for 2 dot marks from which a little blood may ooze”.

Maggie: “What do we do then”?

Jaggy: “Once upon a time the practice was to suck the venom out using the mouth. It was very popular and shown in many a movie. Later on one used to tie a cloth or a Bandage tightly a few inches above the bite and then cut the wound with a knife or blade to draw out the venom”.

Maggie: “Oh my God! What is the right process now”?

Jaggy: “First and fore most do not make the victim walk. Calm down the victim.  Immobilize the limb completely using Crepe bandages.

Take the victim to the Government run Hospitals as they can and will administer the ASV (ANTI SNAKE VENOM) to the victim. If taking him to a private hospital check whether they administer the ASV”.

Maggie: “What if there are no first aid materials”?

Jaggy: “Do not make him to walk, take him immediately to the nearest Hospital. Watch out for symptoms like frothing in the mouth, breathlessness, swelling in the bite area, loss of function in the limbs. Keep talking to the victim to ensure he stays alert”.

Maggie: “What if he becomes unconscious and his breathing stops. Can we give CPR”?

Jaggy: “Yes you can”.

Maggie: “I’ve heard of something called as tourniquet. Can we apply that”?

Jaggy: “No. We should not do that”.

Maggie: “Thanks Jaggy for the help”.

Jaggy: “My pleasure. One word of caution wear ankle high boots on the trek to avoid snake bite”.

Maggie: “Sure will”.

Jaggy: “A parting question. What if a human bites a snake? Will the bite be venomous? Think it over”.

Jaggy and Maggie will continue their engaging conversations after some time. Keep reading and watching the space.

Seshadri Varadarajan.