Quick action saves baby from snakebite death
HAZYVIEW - Eight 10ml vials of snakebite antivenom.
This is all that stood between a 16-monthold baby and certain death.
Hailey Barbeau was bitten by a Mozambican spitting cobra at home on Saturday.
Only the speedy reactions of Anneke van Schoor and Chris Hobkirk of Lowveld Venom Suppliers (LVS), and the fact that they were the only institution in the Lowveld who had these life-saving ampules on hand, saved little Hailey’s life.
Pink, Hailey’s father, said the incident happened at 11:00. He and his wife,
Melanie, were at work. At some stage, Hailey’s minder, Nomfundo Mkasi, called him about a snake near where Hailey was sitting on the front steps.
“Our dogs had suddenly started barking ferociously. Nomfundo saw the snake slithering over the lawn and got worried.”
Pink called a friend who lives nearby and asked him to try and catch it. “I called Nomfundo to tell her to make sure neither she nor Hailey had any marks on their bodies. It was then that she told me she had found two red bitemarks on Hailey’s upper right arm. I was in Mbombela at that stage. I called Melanie, who works at Hippo Hollow, to rush Hailey to Mediclinic Nelspruit.
“I also called another friend, who contacted the ambulance services. Within minutes, both Hi-Tech and LowMed ambulances were on their way to the scene.”
In the meantime, Melanie arrived home to pick Hailey and Mkasi up. “Strangely enough, Hailey did not cry or looked frightened after the incident,” he said.
A few kilometres outside Hazyview on the R40 towards the city, an ER24 emergency vehicle came rushing towards Hazyview to attend to the little girl. “They transferred her and Nomfundo to an ambulance where they monitored her condition.”
One of the Hi-Tech paramedics called Mediclinic to inform them that they had a snakebite emergency coming in. Neither the hospital nor the pharmacy had any polyvalent antivenom in stock. “What is of great concern to us as venom suppliers is that no institution or medical facility in the Lowveld seems to have any stock of either polyvalent, also known as 4 3 2 1 (four cobra, three mamba, two adders and one rinkhals species) or monovalent, which is specifically produced for boomslang bites,” Van Schoor said.
Lowvelder contacted pharmacies at seven of the biggest provincial hospitals in the province, Rob Ferreira, Themba, Middelburg, Witbank, Sabie, Tonga and Shongwe, and none of them had any antivenom in stock.
“This time of year, the Lowveld is a snake haven, as these reptiles are now extremely active.”
Polyvalent antivenom is used to inject a patient after being bitten by snakes like Mozambican spitting cobras, snouted cobras or mambas. Van Schoor contacted Hobkirk. “Fortunately, he had 10 ampules of polyvalent antivenom with him. This is actually our centre’s emergency stock in case one of us gets bitten during the process of milking poison from snakes.”
She rushed to Hobkirk to pick up the antivenom and they made their way to Mediclinic. By the time the emergency services had arrived with Hailey, a team of doctors and the LVS venom specialists were waiting for them.
“It was heartbreaking to see the utter fear on Pink, Melanie and Nomfundo’s faces while Hailey was treated.”
First adrenaline and then the eight phials of antivenom were administered via a drip in Hailey’s arm. Van Schoor said besides for a bit of tissue swelling around the bitemarks as well as a slight coloration of the skin, the little girl looked fine. “She wasn’t crying or moaning of any pain.”
Hailey was discharged on Tuesday morning. “Never have we been so scared to see our little girl lying there, and we didn’t know if the treatment would save her life,” Melanie said.
Robyn Baard, spokesperson for Mediclinic Nelspruit, confirmed that they currently do not have any antivenom in stock. “According to our pharmacy, this is mainly due to a countrywide shortage of antivenom.”