Kottayam: Intrepid snake-catcher Vava Suresh has been discharged from the Kottayam Medical College Hospital, exactly a week after a near-fatal Cobra bite.
The Medical Board decided on the discharge after assessing his health on Monday morning.
State Minister and Ettumanoor MLA V N Vasavan, doctors, nurses and well-wishers were beside Suresh when he was seen off from the hospital by around 11 am.
"This is my second birth," Suresh said while expressing his gratitude to healthcare professionals, government officials and innumerable well-wishers who stood by him and prayed for his recovery.
Suresh has been advised 10 days total rest. Except for some body pain, he is fine. The wound caused by the snake bite has to heal a little more. The antibiotic for the wound is the only medicine he has been prescribed, stated hospital superintendent Dr TK Sivakumar and deputy superintendent Dr Ratheesh Kumar.
Vava Suresh was bitten by the Cobra last Monday evening as he was trying to place it in a sack after getting hold of it from under rubble lying on the premises of a house at Kurichy, a few kilometres south of Kottayam town.
He had regained consciousness on Thursday noon.
65 bottles of anti-venom
Sixty-five bottles of anti-venom were used for his treatment.
This is the first time that such a huge quantity of anti-venom was administered on the body of a snake-bitten person.
Usually, only 25 bottles of anti-venom is used.
Not the first time
This is not the first time Suresh was bitten by a snake.
During his long career of conservation activities, he has encountered numerous accidents.
He has been on ventilator twice and in ICU four times.
In all, he has survived more than 300 venomous snake bites.
The previous incident was on 13 February 2020.
Suresh has vowed to be more careful during his snake missions here on.
State bore all expenses
Suresh's efforts to capture venomous snakes and to educate the people about snakes and their behaviour is widely acknowledged.
He earned the moniker 'The Snake-man of Kerala' for risking his own life to catch snakes straying into human-inhabited areas and releasing them into the wild.
When news broke about the latest incident, Health Minister Veena George said that the State will bear the expenses of Suresh's treatment.
Vasavan promises house for Suresh
Vasavan has given his word to Suresh that a new house will be built for the snake catcher by the Abhayam Charitable Trust in Kottayam, run by his party CPM. The project will be supervised by the Thiruvananthapuram District Committee of CPM. The new house will be constructed at Suresh's mother's property in Thiruvananthapuram.