What would you do if a deadly Mozambique Spitting Cobra latched onto your finger while in bed at a swanky private lodge in South Africa… hundreds of kilometres from any emergency assistance?
Johannesburg, South Africa (30 November 2017) – John Frankiskos shared his harrowing story about being bitten by a deadly Mozambique Spitting Cobra and surviving the scary ordeal. The events that followed are hair-raising, to say the least, but thankfully the story has a positive ending.
It all started at around 9:00 pm on a warm evening in March 2016. John and his family were on holiday at a lodge in the Timbavati. Feeling tired John went to his room to lie down on the bed while his wife, Carol, and friends stayed in the restaurant area of the lodge. He attempted to get comfortable on the bed and placed his hand behind the pillows.
He felt an instant and horrific pain and pulled his hand back over only to see a deadly Cobra latched onto his middle finger on his right hand. Panicked, John tried to shake the snake off but it had coiled around his left arm as well.
The snake released its fangs from his middle finger but in doing so, it bit down on his left hand, catching his pinky finger and his palm in its venomous grip.
Within a matter of seconds, his wounded middle finger went into shock from the venom.
“It’s something you can’t explain and it happened so quickly that you sort of looking at it and saying to yourself… What is going on?”
John believes that the snake must have been around 1.6 metres because it was latched onto his hand, was hanging off his arm and had coiled down on the floor. A sight that would scare the skin off of any of us!
It was at this point that John noticed that the snake was ‘chewing’ on his hand.
It was biting down over and over again, releasing additional venom into his system. John was unsure how to handle the snake and couldn’t understand its continued attack as he had not hurt or aggravated it any further since the initial moment he came into contact with it.
The snake eventually released its grip and dropped to the floor. John considered killing it and looked around the room for something to use but reason overtook his mind and he realised he needed help and fast!
Listen to the full show below, the interview starts at around 33 minutes:
Seeking medical assistance.
John rushed for the door and the snake took the same opportunity to leave. He ran towards the restaurant area and told his wife and friends that he needed help because he had been bitten by a deadly snake. He then turned around and ran back to the room to lay down to await medical assistance.
When help arrived, John told his wife to listen carefully as he was going to describe his symptoms and the situation in detail. He feared that he would pass out and not be able to communicate further. He then identified the snake in a book that the lodge manager had on hand, this was important as it would help determine what course of medical action to take.
Sadly no real help could be given as nobody on staff knew what to do about the bite. The lodge had no protocol in place to deal with a situation of this nature. The issue was that nobody knew what the venom was doing to John or how much time he had.
Within half an hour of the bite, he had started vomiting what he described as black goo, and his hands had swollen up.
John’s wife got in contact with their children in Johannesburg and asked them to find the nearest hospital that had the anti-venom. The only hospital they could find was one that was two hours away and government-run.
“I was very seriously envenomated. In other words, the amount of venom I had in my body was abnormal to a normal snake bite and that was a result of the snake ‘chewing’ on my hand”
The doctor on call authorised the attending nurse to administer a cytotoxic anti-venom and once that was done recommended that John should be moved to the general ward. John says the nurse, named Justin, saved his life because once the anti-venom was administered, he put John on the only heart monitor in the hospital and kept him in the emergency ward to be monitored. The fear was that John would go into shock and nobody would know because he wasn’t on the machine.
Justin the nurse then taught John’s wife, Carol how to read the data on the screen and told her that if anything changed, to call him back immediately. The night was a long one filled with horrific symptoms from the bite.
12 hours later, John was moved to the general ward, he had not had the best attention from the staff at the hospital. In the entire time, he had been hospitalised, he had not spoken to a single doctor.
Fed up and worried for her husband’s life, Carol had the government hospital release John. She got a private ambulance to collect him and they drove three hours to get to the Nelspruit Medi-Clinic. When the ambulance arrived at the hospital, they refused John entry as it was full and placed him in the casualty ward.
Luckily, a surgeon was informed about John’s case and he instructed the hospital to admit John immediately for medical treatment. From that moment on, John started getting proper medical care and the family could take a breath.
A message from above and family support.
John was in critical condition the first four days of his stay. The doctor recommended steps to alleviate the drastic swelling in his hands to avoid having to remove them. They proceeded with the procedure which led to painful daily cleaning to drain excess fluid from the wounds.
From the moment the attack took place to every step thereafter, John’s family was there to support him. During the interview, John became emotional looking back on how much everyone did for him in those first few weeks of treatment.
“I think all of that just shows you how strong family bonds are and how people, irrespective of situations, they’re there to help you!”
The second operation on his hands caused his lungs to collapse, he was in the surgery to have his middle finger amputated. Remembering all the struggles he and his family had to endure during this time brought up more emotions during the interview with Brent.
Once John was well enough, they transferred him to a hospital much closer to home. This transfer made all the difference to the family and to John. It was during this hospital stay that John and his wife had an experience that left them in awe. They received a message from above!
“While I was waiting to go into theatre for the last operation… (This operation was to have my Gallbladder removed because my Gallbladder had gone, I call it vrot because there is no other reason they could see. My view is that it was the venom but the doctors could not conclusively say that)”
“A scrub nurse came out of the operating theatre doors and I was lying there with my wife and I was saying “I’ve actually had enough! It’s enough, I’m done! I can’t carry on anymore. This has just killed me!” And Carol, holding my hand, said “You know what? We fought for you now for so long, this is another little milestone and it’s now time for you to fight for your life and your family! It’s not about you anymore, this is about us. We need you, we want you and you have got to be there”
“With that, the scrub nurse came out, stood at the bottom of my bed and said to us “Do you believe in God?” and I said “Right now I pray every night. And yes, I believe that I couldn’t have got here on my own. There has to have been somebody else helping me”. This nurse looked on and said “Well, I must tell you, you are going to be fine! There are angels above your bed right now and they are looking after you! You are going into theatre, do not worry”. She touched Carol on the shoulder and said “He is going to be fine!” And then she walked out.”
Both John and Carol were left very emotional from the encounter with the scrub nurse. Carol then turned around and asked the sister on duty, who had been sitting right there, for the name of the woman that had just spoken to them, she wanted to say thank you for sharing such encouraging words with them.
The sister didn’t know what Carol was talking about. She then attempted to confirm once again who the scrub nurse was and the sister told them that nobody had come through the door. Both John and Carol were left perplexed by the encounter, but know that it was real, that they had been given a message of hope from above.
New Beginnings.
John made leaps and bounds in his recovery after that encounter. He had spent a total of three months in the hospital and then went into 8 months of hand therapy.
He believes that the experience could be compared to falling off a bicycle, that even with the trauma, one should not fear snakes or the bush. You have to get back up and face it. John has since been back to the bush, he ventured back about three months after he was released from the hospital. The trip was a cathartic one and helped him evaluate all he had been through over the months.
John has remained positive and hopes that his story will help anyone who hears it. He wants to create awareness using his situation. He also encourages people to respect animals, he feels they all have a purpose.
In the end, John will be able to walk his daughter down the aisle.
Tips for travellers and how to prepare.
He learned to plan for trips like this in the future, he shared his tips which you can read below.
- Make sure to have an emergency number saved on your phone. John recommends the Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town (021 938 4911), they have a 24-hour poison centre which you can call for assistance and guidance on what to do.
- Make sure your hotel, lodge or camp has a protocol in place for any number of animal attacks and situations.
- Ask them if there is someone on the premises that has knowledge of venoms and the how to treat them in the initial stage before seeking professional medical assistance.
The most important thing John learned from the entire experience and it is a vital bit of information everyone reading this post should retain and tell their doctors is this:
“The minimum amount of anti-venom that should be administered for any bite is anything from 60ml to 120ml. (In John’s case, they only gave him 30ml)”
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