Teen may lose leg after Snake bite

Sep 10, 2015 News

Kevin Gomes, 17, of the North West District was on another mission to seek out a living as a gold miner. Now he may lose one of his legs. His life has been forever altered because of a snake bite.

He is lucky to be alive and hoping that his right leg does not have to be amputated. He has been admitted to the Georgetown hospital and is in pain and he has wild imaginations of death.

The youth’s right leg is covered with large blisters and is becoming black. Doctors are to make a decision shortly on if to amputate his leg to save his life.

From his hospital bed he said that about 14:00hrs on Monday he was walking with his friend Alex, along a trail, heading to their mining camp, when tragedy struck.

“I didn’t see the Labaria and the snake jump and bite me right leg just above my knee.” Dizzy spells followed amidst fears that he was going to die. However to save his life his friend Alex became a doctor on the trail.

“Alex put me to sit down and tie off me leg up at the top and I tell he to cut out the bite spot with a knife to prevent the poison from killing me and he do it,” Gomes said.

As he bled, Alex ran for some 90 minutes along the trail to the mining camp where he collected an All Terrain Vehicle, ATV and returned to find that his friend had lost a lot of blood and was unconscious.

Gomes said his boss, known only as Rudy, transported him to a Health Centre in the Northwest District but he had to await transportation to be transferred to the Georgetown Hospital Accident and Emergency unit.

Without timely medical treatment chances of survival are slim in cases of snake bite.
In 2009, Maxey Edmund, 27, of Philippi Village, Region Seven lost his life after being bitten on his left calf by a poisonous snake.
The stricken man had walked some 40 miles for treatment, from his village all the way to the Annai Health Centre. By the time he reached, his condition had deteriorated, forcing the Health Centre to transport him for additional treatment in Georgetown, where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
In 2012, Nelson Daniels, a 45-year-old labourer, of Warapana, Upper Pomeroon River, succumbed to the poison of a Labaria snake four days after he was bitten.
The father of four was reportedly unable to access medical attention on time due to financial constraints coupled with the remoteness of the area in which he lived.
He was transported to the Oscar Joseph Hospital at Charity and then to the GPHC after his condition worsened.

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