Unknown bite - and more venomous

SK about whom we were quite concerned about for quite a long time finally improved well enough for us to start thinking about discharging her.

SK came about 10 days back with a history of an unknown bite. The relatives were quite confused about the identity of the creature which bit SK. We send for the clotting time which came elevated. There were local signs of envenomation. So, we came to a presumptive diagnosis of viper bite and started anti-snake venom.

SK improved very soon and her clotting time came to normal limits. There were 2 other patients with viper bites and the 3 families formed a sort of bond. The other 2 patients recovered without much problem. SK also had compartment syndrome and underwent fasciotomy. The 3 patients send us into a situation where Anti- Snake Venom was running short.

However, we noticed that SK’s renal status was deteriorating and was going into anuria. Meanwhile, the other 2 were improving. I called up SK’s father and told him about a possible need for referral. SK’s father told me that he has already sold 2 of his bullocks and 1 goat to fund SK’s treatment. And as he was not going for work – so he had to provide for the family’s day to day existence.

A funny side of the treatment process was the constant stream of visitors that SK had – mostly local leaders and pretender leaders. Couple of them came and met me and told that they would take care of all the costs and to do the best for the patient. After some important looking leaders came and met me – I called up SK’s father and asked him about it.

He would start sobbing – telling that none of them including his villagers has given even a single rupee for the treatment even to the extent of taking responsibility to care his other children. He told me that if we cannot manage her, he would rather take her home to die.

We convinced him to allow us to do whatever we could to try to save SK.

Meanwhile SK was worsening. We realized that she was going into pulmonary edema. We were juggling on what could be the cause of the pulmonary edema. Renal failure was thought of as the cause and we became quite stingy with the fluid management. However, there was no relief. In addition, we had to put her on mechanical ventilation.

She had also gone into sepsis. We changed antibiotics – but without much improvement. Later, Dr. Nandamani explored the chance of cardiogenic pulmonary edema. Ultimately, we decided to start SK on a GTN drip.

And we praised God when she responded to the GTN drip. After 3 days in the ventilator, SK was weaned out of the ventilator. She is quite tired. 3 days on the ventilator was quite a bit stressful on both our ventilators – the older one and the newer one – and for quite a lot of time, she was manually bagged by both the parents.

I’ve send for further investigations about her renal status. Clinically, she appears to be on the road to recovery.

Today morning, I got to talk to her. We were already a bit suspicious about the creature which bit SK. SK was quite sure that it was not a snake. She told that it looked like a large lizard. SK’s father told me that if it was the creature – usually people die after this creature bites. After the case of a spider bite which caused quite a lot of stress to a family, it is quite interesting that we do have other creatures which can be as dangerous as venomous snakes like cobras or vipers.