A case of snake bite of a Territorial Personnel

• India has 216 identified species of snakes out of which 52 are poisonous.
• There are approximately 20,00000 snake bites cases are reported in a year and 45,900 deaths are there. 
• The death is 5% of all injury deaths.

  ( as per Sainik Samachar 1-15 July 2018 , page 13).

It was in 1990 an Indian was on military duty somewhere in Western Sector. He was in the advance party. The main party reached by a special train on 1st July. The troops were deployed for ground defence of an ammunition depot. They were outside the depot, which was 5 km in diameter, the area is snake infected. The National High way no 2 is very close by. They were from an Infantry Battalion of Territorial Army. They were called for military duty from their civil occupation.

There was a first heavy rain on that day, the 180 lbs tent was pitched on the cultivation area of civil land. Appropriate precaution against snake bites, such as snake trench four sides of the tent, snake bite kit, a new blade, clean water, soap, and tunicate was available for emergency use.

Rifleman (Rfn) Bindu Ram, a resident of Uttar Pradesh was on duty up to 2 am. After his duty he went to sleep on his bed,it was on the ground. A groundsheet on dry straw was made, due to heavy rain the area was flooded. The snake stretch was filled with water. A snake was under his bed. He slept 2 am to 4 .05 am, he might have changed his sleeping position when the snake has bitten at his finger. No mosquito net was issued to them.

He shouted when all the tentmates wake up immediately and applied tunicate. The representative sent a message to their Company Commander who was located inside the depot under a tent. It took about 2hrs 30 mins to reach the message. The message was sent through the sentry of Defense Service Corp (DSC) personnel who was at the other side of barbed wire. The Ambulance reached in no time
at the victim site and rushed to the nearest Military Hospital via Medical Officer's residence. He was admitted at the ICU of the hospital.

As per norms, the details of his next of kin was provided to the hospital authority. The Company Commander can see the patient in the presence of the Medical Officer of the hospital, he was then under an artificial respiration system. He could open his eye with great difficulty when he was called by the doctor after 3 days. He expired at the hospital, his family member reached there after his death.

The Company Commander received a letter from his father adressed to Rfn Bindu Ram that he can include his wife name in his record. There was no scope to do that. It was great help his attestation parade was done. His mother was sanctioned family pension.