Murshida Khatun, 55, was bitten by a venomous cobra while moving jute that had been left to ret in a field. She then caught the live snake and returned home with it. Her family later shut the snake in a plastic container and took it to hospital along with her.

The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon in the Singhoria field of Shimulia union in Khoksa upazila, Kushtia. She is the wife of Sirajul Islam of Singhoria village.

According to her family, Murshida Khatun was moving jute in the field when a snake bit her on the leg. Realising what had happened, she grabbed it by the tail and lifted it up, then walked about half a kilometre home carrying the snake. With others' help it was shut in a plastic container, and she was taken with the snake to the upazila health complex. As preparations began for treatment there, her family took her elsewhere, saying they wanted better treatment. The two-foot-long snake is still with the patient.

Her brother-in-law Hafizul told Jago News by mobile phone that they were taking her to Kushtia General Hospital.

Dr Mahamudul Hasan, the doctor on duty in the emergency department of the upazila health complex, said the woman was brought in with the cobra, and preparations had been made to admit and treat her. "But the patient's people took her away of their own accord, saying they would get kabiraji [traditional healer] treatment."

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