A young man named Raihan Uddin, 32, fell ill after being bitten by a snake in Andulbaria village of Jibannagar upazila, Chuadanga, and was admitted to hospital. His relatives brought the dead snake to the hospital along with him.

Raihan Uddin is the sub-assistant community medical officer of the Andulbaria sub-health centre. The incident happened at his home in Andulbaria village at 9pm on Sunday, 11 June. He returned home recovered on Monday afternoon.

When his family arrived at the hospital with the snake that night, patients and their relatives crowded round to see the dead snake.

Dr Moshiur Rahman, the doctor on duty in the emergency department of Chuadanga Sadar Hospital, said the patient's relatives had brought a dead snake along with him. He was given initial treatment and kept under observation from that night, and was now out of danger.

Dr ASM Fateh Akram, resident medical officer (RMO) of Chuadanga Sadar Hospital, said Raihan had recovered with first aid and had already been discharged and gone home.

Bakhtiar Hamid, founder of the Chuadanga environmental organisation 'Pankouri', said the snake was completely non-venomous. He said it was a ghorginni or ghorchiti (common wolf snake). These snakes mainly enter houses to eat lizards or insects. There is nothing to fear, and patients recover with first aid.

Raihan Uddin said: "I was saying my Isha prayers at home at night when the snake came into my room and bit my right leg. My family then took me to Chuadanga Sadar Hospital and had me admitted. They killed the snake and brought it to the doctor to help with treatment. Later I learned the snake was non-venomous. Alhamdulillah, I am well now."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.