Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Police stop dying snake bite victim’s vehicle -tells them speeding not a good excuse
Lizzie, the snake bite victim
A Guyanese man heroically rushed a dying snakebite victim through winding jungle roads to a hospital – only for police to refuse to let him off for speeding.
Kevin Rodrigues and his friends, Lizzy and Nikhel, were hunting in isolated jungle and left camp late at night to check on their boat.
Suddenly, Lizzy, 19, felt something bit her leg and Kevin turned his torch on the undergrowth to reveal a deadly labaria snake.
‘I knew instantly she had very little time to live and we had to get the poison out of her and get her to hospital,’ he told MailOnline.
He and Nikhel dragged her to the 4WD and after pulling a zip-tie around her leg, cut open the area around the bite and massaged out the ‘bad blood’.
Kevin then sped to the nearest medical centre about an hour away in Mabura Hill, but was turned away, there because the guard didn’t want to wake the nurses.
After having no luck in the next settlement, they drove five hours through the jungle to a hospital in Linden.
‘I’m racing through the horrible roads to get her out and all she’s doing is crying and screaming so it’s making me nervous and I’m just praying to get her out,’ Kevin said.
Doctors in Linden gave Lizzy first aid but did not have the right anti-venom to properly treat the deadly snakebite.
The trio got back in the car and rushed towards the capital Georgetown, another 108km away, but were pulled over by police when speeding around a bend.
‘I explained to the officer what happened and that she needs the anti-venom; he then said, “that’s not my problem and no excuse to break the law”,’ Kevin said.
‘Guyana Police Force can hire some real a**holes without common sense or care for a person’s well-being. Isn’t the public safety supposed to be first?’
He said the officer refused to let them go while Lizzy lay dying in the back seat, and threatened to search the jeep and look for extra things to fine him for.
‘Be happy, it’s only one charge I’m giving you because your vehicle has too much mud on it and I cant make out the number plates,’ Kevin said the officer told him.
The group eventually made it to Georgetown and doctors managed to save Lizzy’s life with anti-venom and she is now on the mend.
Kevin said they told him she would have died if they hadn’t cut open the bite area and then rushed her to hospital.
He said he would appear in court next Wednesday and planned to fight the speeding ticket.
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