A six-year-old girl, Shikha Moni, has died of a snakebite in the Nama Genda Bottola area of Bank Town in Savar, Dhaka.

The bite happened at around 12.30pm on Tuesday, 9 December. At around 8pm she was rushed, unconscious, to the emergency department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), where the doctor on duty declared her dead.

The child's maternal grandmother, Shahnaz Begum, said Shikha Moni was the only daughter of her daughter, Jasmin Akter, and a much-loved granddaughter. At around noon on Tuesday she was playing in the grass beside the house with other children when a snake suddenly bit her on the left foot.

Shahnaz Begum said that on learning what had happened they first took the girl to Savar Upazila Hospital. "The doctor there gave a medicine and said to give it twice a day and she would be fine. We brought her home. When her condition got worse at home, we took her to Enam Medical in Savar. The doctor there told us to take the child quickly to Suhrawardy Hospital."

The family then took her to Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital, where doctors said they had no antivenom. From there they rushed to Mohakhali hospital, where the doctor said there was no snake antivenom either. They then brought her to the DMCH emergency department, where the doctor on duty declared her dead.

"My daughter is physically disabled," the grandmother said. "We went round different hospitals from Savar to Dhaka and could not get antivenom. I could not save my granddaughter."

Inspector Md Faruk, in charge of the DMCH police camp, confirmed the death. He said the body had been kept in the hospital morgue and the police station concerned had been informed.

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