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Ontario woman nearly dies -- twice -- after snake bite in Thailand
Liam Casey , The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, June 26, 2019 8:26PM EDT
Shalabha Kalliath's legs buckled as pain shot through her body during a walk on a beach in Thailand.
When she looked down, a small snake dangled from her right big toe. She was able to slam it against a wall in Ko Phi Phi before collapsing during a vacation late last month.
Someone else killed the snake that day. Its identification, by a Thai medic, would later help save the 26-year-old.
After being bitten, the recent engineering graduate of the University of Waterloo said a friend and a stranger helped her to a nearby clinic on the idyllic Thai island where one doctor told her she could die.
Doctors at the clinic told her the venom had made its way into her blood and she needed the antidote - antivenin - which they didn't have. Kalliath said she was then taken to a hospital for treatment.
Kalliath said she was told her leg might have to be amputated. She also couldn't remember where she lived or where she was, so filling out the health insurance form was impossible.
She called her father, a doctor working in Brunei, who helped as much as he could. Her friend called her father, a doctor in Oman, who also helped triage the situation.
At some point, doctors at the hospital finally administered the antivenin, she said, adding that she was in and out of consciousness by that point.
Kalliath said she started feeling better after a second dose of antivenin. Anti-nausea medicine and morphine also helped.
By her second day at the hospital, she begged a doctor to allow her outside and a friend was able to take her out in a wheelchair, intravenous lines and all, to a bench on the beach. She got a burrito, they played games and a doctor sat nearby and watched, she said.
The situation improved further and Kalliath said she was soon discharged and cleared to fly home, so long as she kept her leg elevated.
But problems cropped up again once she returned to Waterloo, Ont.
It turned out that the snake venom hadn't completely cleared her system - doctors told her they believe some remained trapped in swollen tissue - and had made her blood incapable of clotting. She said she was told she could bleed to death internally from even a minor fall.
While Kalliath was placed in intensive care, physicians rushed to find the correct antidote in Canada, calling the Ontario Poison Centre, which reached out to the Toronto Zoo.
The zoo said Malayan pit viper antivenom was available at a zoo in Texas, but that would take about 12 hours to reach the hospital.
What the Toronto Zoo did have was a selection of antivenin used for bites from North American pit vipers, such as the copperhead and the cottonmouth. Both the zoo and the poison centre decided using the North American antivenin was the best bet, said Andrew Lentini, the zoo's senior director of wildlife care and science.
It worked.
Kalliath is now on the mend. Her foot remains swollen and she's still on anti-inflammatory medication but she said she feels much better.
https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-wo...land-1.4484455
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What an amazing story! This woman is so lucky to be alive.. I have never really seen snakes on the beach before in Southern Thailand, you? I wonder what hospital she was referring to as the worst hospital she has ever been to when the doctor told her that people die it's a part of life..
Ontario woman nearly dies -- twice -- after snake bite in Thailand
Liam Casey , The Canadian Press
Published Wednesday, June 26, 2019 8:26PM EDT
Shalabha Kalliath's legs buckled as pain shot through her body during a walk on a beach in Thailand.
When she looked down, a small snake dangled from her right big toe. She was able to slam it against a wall in Ko Phi Phi before collapsing during a vacation late last month.
Someone else killed the snake that day. Its identification, by a Thai medic, would later help save the 26-year-old.
After being bitten, the recent engineering graduate of the University of Waterloo said a friend and a stranger helped her to a nearby clinic on the idyllic Thai island where one doctor told her she could die.
Doctors at the clinic told her the venom had made its way into her blood and she needed the antidote - antivenin - which they didn't have. Kalliath said she was then taken to a hospital for treatment.
Kalliath said she was told her leg might have to be amputated. She also couldn't remember where she lived or where she was, so filling out the health insurance form was impossible.
She called her father, a doctor working in Brunei, who helped as much as he could. Her friend called her father, a doctor in Oman, who also helped triage the situation.
At some point, doctors at the hospital finally administered the antivenin, she said, adding that she was in and out of consciousness by that point.
Kalliath said she started feeling better after a second dose of antivenin. Anti-nausea medicine and morphine also helped.
By her second day at the hospital, she begged a doctor to allow her outside and a friend was able to take her out in a wheelchair, intravenous lines and all, to a bench on the beach. She got a burrito, they played games and a doctor sat nearby and watched, she said.
The situation improved further and Kalliath said she was soon discharged and cleared to fly home, so long as she kept her leg elevated.
But problems cropped up again once she returned to Waterloo, Ont.
It turned out that the snake venom hadn't completely cleared her system - doctors told her they believe some remained trapped in swollen tissue - and had made her blood incapable of clotting. She said she was told she could bleed to death internally from even a minor fall.
While Kalliath was placed in intensive care, physicians rushed to find the correct antidote in Canada, calling the Ontario Poison Centre, which reached out to the Toronto Zoo.
The zoo said Malayan pit viper antivenom was available at a zoo in Texas, but that would take about 12 hours to reach the hospital.
What the Toronto Zoo did have was a selection of antivenin used for bites from North American pit vipers, such as the copperhead and the cottonmouth. Both the zoo and the poison centre decided using the North American antivenin was the best bet, said Andrew Lentini, the zoo's senior director of wildlife care and science.
It worked.
Kalliath is now on the mend. Her foot remains swollen and she's still on anti-inflammatory medication but she said she feels much better.
https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-wo...land-1.4484455
=====
What an amazing story! This woman is so lucky to be alive.. I have never really seen snakes on the beach before in Southern Thailand, you? I wonder what hospital she was referring to as the worst hospital she has ever been to when the doctor told her that people die it's a part of life..
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