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Police offer to pay speeding ticket for driver of snake bite victim

Jun 21, 2018 News

A few weeks after a miner reportedly had a harrowing experience trying to rescue a female friend bitten by a deadly snake in the hinterland, he says that police have offered to deal with the speeding ticket.
The case, reported last week, angered many, including senior officials of the Guyana Police Force.
Yesterday, the Bartica-based businessman, Kevin Rodrigues, disclosed that following the story over the weekend by Kaieteur News, which picked it up from a foreign news website, he received a phone call from a senior official of the police’s Traffic Headquarters, Eve Leary.
The policeman told him don’t bother, they will deal with the ticket.
Rodrigues reported that he was stopped by police ranks in Linden who told him he was speeding.
When he told them he had a snake bite victim in the vehicle who had to get to a hospital and that was the reason he was speeding, the police ranks reportedly remained unconvinced and threatened to fine him also for the mud on his vehicle. The businessman received a ticket in the end.
According to Rodrigues, he came forward about the incident to bring awareness to some of the issues that drivers face. He expressed appreciation to the police force for its handling of the matter this week.
The man had misplaced his ticket; however, it appeared that police force was convinced that his story is true.
According to the story, first reported by the Daily Mail, 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 bite her leg and Rodrigues 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.
Rodrigues and Nikhel dragged her to the four-wheel drive vehicle, and after pulling a zip-tie around her leg, cut open the area around the bite and massaged out the ‘bad blood’.
Rodrigues 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.
Yesterday, Rodrigues acknowledged that this had made him upset too.
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,” Rodrigues 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 Georgetown, 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”,” Rodrigues said.
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.
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.
Rodrigues said they told him she would have died if they hadn’t cut open the bite area and then rushed her to hospital.
He was due to pay the fine in court yesterday.

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