snakes

Last night something very frightening occurred.  Our colleague, Marjanne, was bitten by a snake.  She was walking from her house to the generator shed to turn on the generator because the power had just gone out (this was around 7:30pm, after dark) and was bitten by a very small black snake.  Thankfully there is another girl, Jeannette, staying in the same compound just now and Marjanne screamed to her to come help.  Jeannette killed the snake and then rushed Marjanne to the hospital in Petauke (about 25-30 minutes drive away).  They took the snake along for identification but no one has been able to identify what kind it is yet (it's always so difficult when they are still very small). Marjanne was bitten on the foot, near her toes and when she returned from the hospital her foot was already very swollen and the swelling was beginning to spread up her leg also.  She was in a lot of pain all the way up her leg to her hip, but not having any other problems, thankfully.

She told us that when they reached the hospital in Petauke, the people said, "Well, you shouldn't worry now, because if it had been poisonous you would be dead in 30 minutes."  By this time 45 minutes had passed since she was bitten!  Poor Marjanne had never realized until that moment how much danger she was in.  When she was first bitten she did not think it was such a big deal and even went walking around afterwards!  We are so very thankful that even though it appears the snake that bit her was venomous (based on her body's reaction to the bite) that apparently either there was not much venom injected or else it was not a highly poisonous snake.  While what the people at the hospital said can be true (in worst case scenarios, if you are bitten by a cobra or mamba you can easily die in 30 minutes) it is more common that you will die within an hour or more.  The problem with what they said is that just because you have survived 45 minutes after a bite does not mean that you are out of danger!

Anyway, the power was out in the town so they examined her by candlelight.  Marjanne, being a missionary first and foremost and not being very concerned about the situation, told Jeannette to take a photo of them treating her by candlelight!  She told me afterwards that she was thinking, "Now, this will make a good story for my next newsletter!"  The funny thing was, the people at the hospital didn't even check her vital signs!  They didn't monitor her heart rate or her blood pressure or anything.  They just looked at the bite, looked at the swelling... and gave her a steroid injection and a tetanus shot!  They also prescribed her painkillers and antibiotics to take.  But of course there is no antivenin available here so that was all they could do!

By the grace of God Marjanne seems to be okay and she has escaped death.  She did not get much sleep last night because of the pain in her leg, but she is resting a lot during the day.  Her leg is now swollen up to her hip and still extremely painful so that she cannot walk on it.  However, the swelling is not spreading any further and she is still exhibiting no other symptoms.  She is very cheerful, all things considered, and seems to be doing just okay other than the swelling and the pain! 

But you can imagine that this has left all of us considerably shaken. This is the first time in about 4 years that anyone here at the College has been bitten by a snake, but it could easily happen again.  We have so many highly poisonous snakes around here (cobras, black mambas, puff adders, etc) that it is very frightening to think how close death has come.  Also the size of the snake which bit Marjanne has concerned us.  It was so small that you would likely not see it in the grass before you stepped on it!  When you combine these thoughts with the knowledge that we are far from adequate medical care and that the closest place where antivenin is available is Lusaka -- five hours' drive away -- these things are all very worrying. We have been told that buying antivenin will cost 1.5 million Kwacha per dose (close to 200 GBP) but I think in the future we will try to keep some on hand here at the College because otherwise we are risking people's lives.

Also, after she was bitten Marjanne was trying to phone all of us to let us know what had happened.  The mobile phone signal has been so bad recently that she was unable to reach anyone for a long time!  Again, in the event of an emergency this is so concerning that we are not able to phone each other because the network is down. We do not live within earshot of each other.  I think we are going to look into purchasing walkie-talkies in order to facilitate emergency communication between staff members since the phone network is so unreliable.  There are a lot of things to consider so that we are prepared for an emergency like this in the future.

Please, please be praying for the Lord's protection to be upon our family, our colleagues, and all the other staff and students and their families here at the College.  It is sobering to think of how many dangers surround us here in this fairly isolated area, away from adequate medical facilities.  So please pray not only for Marjanne's continued healing, but for protection and wisdom for the rest of us! ...and also that we would not be tempted to live life in fear.