Cobra Bites 7-Year-Old Outside School, Boy Dies Of Organ Failure

A seven-year-old boy died days after he was bitten by a cobra outside his school in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

The boy, identified as Pawan Kumar, was rushed to a local hospital after he was bitten by the reptile Wednesday. He was shifted to another hospital with better dialysis facility after his condition deteriorated Saturday.

“The venom of the cobra, a neurotoxin, damaged Pawan Kumar’s nervous system. He suffered multiple organ failure as a result and had to be rushed to Kurnool GGH for dialysis. He was taken in an ambulance equipped with a ventilator,” a doctor told local daily the Hindu.

The boy’s liver and kidney slowly began failing and despite best efforts to revive him, Kumar died Monday. However, reports suggested that a delay in treatment could have resulted in the failure of kidney and liver.

Speaking to the Hindu, the Andhra Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights member, V. Gandhi Babu, said the boy was rushed to the hospital by the school’s principal minute after the snakebite. However, there was a delay in giving snake anti-venom despite it being available in the hospital. He said the doctor “chose to give the boy only a saline and waited for some time.” Meanwhile, the boy’s parents were inconsolable about not being able to save their child.

In a similar incident in the Indian state of Gujarat earlier this month, a boy died of snakebite inside a residential school. The victim, identified as seven-year-old Kalpesh Katara, had gone to the kitchen to wash the dishes post dinner when he was bitten by the snake. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but died on the way. Meanwhile, a police complaint was filed against the principal and administrator of the school for negligence.