Ramrathan, 40 year old, Brindhaven resident and worker at the Verulam Crematorium, was washing his hands when his wife Ashmitha spotted the metre-long snake under the sink on Thursday night.
“My wife screamed snake! And all I could see was a long figure quickly slither out of the bathroom and under my 6-year-old daughter Omishka’s bed. My wife grabbed our daughter. I looked under the bed and saw the snake coiled up. I grabbed a stick and hit it several times until it died.”
Ramrathan placed the dead snake in a plastic packet and burnt it, not realising he had been bitten.
“I remember coming back into the house and asking my wife for a glass of water. I felt a burn on my arm and realised I was bitten. I asked her to rub an onion on the bite,” he said.
Ashmitha said she called a neighbour for help and he tried to suck the venom out of her husband’s arm.
“Anesh became very drowsy and then started frothing. His chest started to tighten and he was battling to breathe. I contacted (security and emergency response company) Reaction Unit South Africa and they transported my husband to hospital.’
She said Ramtharan was placed on drips, given oxygen and anti-venom, and was discharged the next day.
Ashmitha said she believed the snake got into the home through the bathroom window.
Ramrathan, said he was lucky to be alive and would never try to kill a snake again, but rather call a snake catcher.
Black mambas is the species of Africa’s longest venomous snake, reaching up to 4.5m.
