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A story with a
happy ending!... |
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Esperidião, a
bee-worker at the Farm – whose honey production now
carries an organic certificate – is used to being stung.
But this time things were quite different: when he picked up
a stone, he was bitten on the forefinger by a fearful jararaca
snake (Bothrops erythromelas Amaral). Being a calm
and organized young man, even meticulous, he did not panic,
but killed the snake and took it with him to tell the farm
office what had happened.
A car was quickly arranged to
take him to the Patos Regional Hospital, 15 kilometers away.
Not feeling any particular pain or any other strange symptom,
he decided to go home to have a quick shower and change, and
only then did he go on to his destination, accompanied by
the driver, who was a little concerned at the delay. |
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Esperidião
smiling after the incident |
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Esperidião arrived at the hospital carrying the killer snake.
Once there, he took the snake out of his pocket – which
frightened doctors and nurses, but enabled the snake to be
identified immediately as a jararaca, and therefore, the antidote
to be used. He was hospitalized
immediately and none too soon, as he began to bleed from the nose
and gums, his nails darkening, proving to be a case of serious
bleeding.
Straight away, he
received five 10-ml. vials of bothropic serum by intravenous
injection, and was kept lying calmly in bed.He was kept in
hospital under observation for one more day and was then
discharged. Fortunately, his only complaint was about the food he
received there!
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Impressed by the
efficiency and quality of the service, we went to visit Mr.
Leonardo, the person responsible for the Snakebite Antidote
program at the 6th Regional Health Center in Patos, to
learn more about the structure to attend to cases of this type
(100 per year).
This program –
organized by the State of Paraiba Coordination for Animal Diseases,
in João Pessoa – is responsible for the programs that fight
rabies, leptospirosis and snake bites. Thanks to this program,
stocks of antidotes and vaccines at regional hospitals are
permanently supplied and maintained, with perfect preservation
ensured by cold storage.
In the case of the snakebites,
there are four different types of antidote, all produced by the
Butantã Institute in São Paulo: |
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| crotalic |
| for rattlesnake
bites, which kill in 6 to 8 hours, and whose main
symptoms are cloudy and double vision, and mild
bleeding |
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| bothropic |
| for jararaca
bites, whose effects come on slowly and whose symptoms
are the swelling of the members bitten and more
serious bleeding of the nose and gums |
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| elapidic |
| for true
coral snake bites, which cause serious bleeding
and death in two hours, if not promptly treated |
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| polyvalent |
| used
exclusively when it is not possible to identify the
type of snake. That is why it is necessary always to
bring the snake, in order to determine which antidote
to use. |
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A story with a happy ending! And one that proves that Brazil has
efficient, high-quality programs for the protection of its
citizens! The only person who wasn’t pleased was Xavier,
Esperidião’s father, a very pious man, devoted to Padre Cicero
of Juazeiro do Norte, who considered all this unnecessary and even
harmful, because Esperidião’s body had been cured three times
before by a blind faith-healer!
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