The wife of a Port Elizabeth snake catcher who is fighting for his life after being bitten by a boomslang, has told how he was sent home by a hospital despite concerns.
Dewald Els, 43, was bitten on Wednesday when he was called to assist with catching a snake in the roof of a Newton Park house.
Els, a former police officer, is a veteran snake handler and assists Port Elizabeth snake expert Mark Marshall in removing unwanted snakes found in homes.
After going to the Netcare Greenacres Hospital emergency unit following the bite and being placed under observation and on a drip, Els was sent home, only to be rushed to Livingstone Hospital hours later.
Boomslang venom is haemotoxic and fairly slow-acting, but with deadly side effects such as internal and external bleeding if untreated.
Els’s shocked wife Tischa, 45, explained that while in the hospital, she had contacted Marshall – who advises doctors on snake bites.
Marshall’s insistence that Els should remain in hospital went unheeded.“We went home. At about 8pm Mark called and we told him the entry point where the drip needle was would not stop bleeding. Marshall contacted a doctor at Livingstone. By this stage Dewald was slurring. His face was very red and his breathing was getting shallow.”
At Livingstone, the doctors and staff were waiting outside. “They took him straight in and started anti-venom treatment. His blood pressure had dropped so low that he was barely breathing,” Tischa said.
By 3am on Thursday, Els was intubated and breathing on a ventilator system. By yesterday morning he was breathing on his own and his blood had started clotting.
“At this stage they have given him so much anti-venom that his body cannot handle any more. If he has more, his heart will stop. Now we are waiting and praying for the best,” Tischa said.
By late yesterday, Els was moved to Life St George’s Hospital’s intensive care unit and placed back on breathing support machines.
“While his condition is improving, he is still not out of danger,” Tischa said.
Netcare Greenacres spokeswoman Adele Kennedy declined to answer specific questions but said: “The gentleman was treated according to protocol and according to our records, he did not want to be admitted. The patient was provided with the necessary health education and he was advised to return to hospital in 12 hours for follow-up, or immediately should his condition change,” she said.