Imran Hossain, 38, the snake charmer bitten by a snake in Bheramara, Kushtia, has taken voluntary discharge from hospital and gone home before completing his treatment. He left out of embarrassment, he said.

He left Kushtia General Hospital at around 12 noon on Sunday, 19 July.

Confirming that he had returned home, Imran Hossain said: "I am well now. I took leave from the doctor voluntarily and came home."

Asked why he left without full treatment, he said: "Journalists come day and night asking the same question: why did I, a snake charmer, get bitten and end up in hospital? Some people are even trying to prove I am a fraud. So I came home out of shame. I will finish the rest of the treatment at home."

Iqbal Hasan, resident medical officer (RMO) of Kushtia General Hospital, said Imran had applied to the duty doctor for discharge on Saturday night. When he asked again on Sunday, he was released with a prescription for the necessary medicines.

He said Imran is physically well at present, but told the hospital that, as a snake charmer, being admitted for a snakebite felt humiliating.

Dr Iqbal Hasan warned the public that anyone bitten by a snake should come to hospital quickly for treatment rather than waste time with a snake charmer or faith healing.

Imran Hossain was bitten at around 10pm on Friday while trying to catch a cobra at a house in the Baggari Para area of Golapnagar union in Bheramara upazila.

He is the son of Mosharraf Hossain of Hirimadia Gorosthan Para in Bheramara upazila. Describing himself as a snake catcher and snake charmer, he regularly posts videos of catching snakes in different places on social media.

Local sources said Imran went to the home of local resident Amirul Islam on Friday night to remove a snake. After digging into the ground in the courtyard and pulling a cobra from a hole, he tried to catch it, and the snake bit him above the knee. Two local young men then rushed him to Kushtia General Hospital.

Imran said Amirul Islam's only son, Samrat, died of a snakebite on 16 July. Samrat, 22, was a mason who had married a year and a half earlier; his wife is now four months pregnant.

After Samrat's death, a snake was seen at the house again on 17 July and the frightened family called him, Imran said. He first removed three young snakes from the courtyard, then pulled a large cobra from a hole, and about a minute and a half later it bit him above the knee.

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