A FEARLESS toddler bit a cobra to death after the terrifying serpent attacked him in India.
Courageous two-year-old Govinda Kumar had been playing at his home in the state of Bihar when the snake appeared.
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The three-foot cobra began to coil around the toddler’s hands when he grabbed it.
But the child did not scream, instead biting down on the venomous snake’s head, according to his grandmother Mateshwari Devi.
She said: “I was moving firewood near the house and the cobra came out.
“The child perhaps saw the snake moving and caught hold of it.
“We rushed towards the boy and saw he had taken the cobra’s head into his mouth.
“We then separated the cobra from his mouth and hands.
“The cobra died on the spot, while the child fell unconscious.”
Govinda passed out due to the snake’s venom – which he had ingested when he bit the serpent.
But the venom’s effects were said to be mild – he was treated at hospital and has since been discharged.
He was initially rushed to a nearby health centre in the incident’s immediate aftermath, after which he was taken to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) Bettiah for specialist care.
The GMCH Bettiah receives five or six snake bite cases each month, according to reports.
But this was the first time its team had seen a child bite and kill a serpent.
“Timely treatment saved Govinda’s life,” Saurabh Kumar, a doctor of the government hospital, told the Times of India.
Cobra bites are highly dangerous to humans, and can cause severe tissue damage and death.
Dr Saurab Kumar, associate professor in the GMCH Bettiah’s pediatrics department, told The Telegraph: “I received the child active and alert but his mouth and face was swollen because of the reaction to the venom in the oral cavity.
“We were surprised and cross-checked with his parents multiple times to ensure the child was not bitten by the cobra to rule out that venom had not gone into his bloodstream.
“They told us he bit the cobra and the snake died on the spot.”
The child had eaten part of the cobra and the venom had entered his digestive tract, Dr Kumar added.
“We gave him anti-allergy medicine and kept him under watch.
“As he didn’t develop any symptoms for 48 hours, we discharged the child on Saturday.”
The snake apparently died due to trauma caused by the child’s bite, Dr Kumar said.
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