A MAN managed to save his children from being bitten by a python but not before being bitten by the reptile at a lake in Sitio Lub-ang, Barangay Casuntingan in Mandaue City at past 8 p.m. last Wednesday.
Raymundo Manzo tried to catch the python as it slithered towards his four children but the reptile bit his lower left leg after he tried to grab it by the tail with his bare hands.
Casuntingan Barangay Chairman Oscar del Castillo said the snake was seen by Manzo’s children while they played near the lake at 8 p.m.
“Naukab ang iyang samad kay gibira man niya diretso ang bitin. Pagbira niya, gipaak nasad siya sa kumagko (The bite wound went deeper because the snake pulled at his leg. When the man managed to free his leg, the snake then went on to bite his thumb.)
The snake is now caged inside Del Castillo’s house.
In yesterday’s press conference, Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing said Manzo was rushed to the Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital in Barangay Jagobiao, Mandaue City.
He was referred later on to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City because the sanitarium didn’t have a snake bite treatment kit.
Manzo was administered an anti-tetanus shot at the Casuntingan Health Center.
Manzo was given an anti-venom shot even though the python wasn’t poisonous.
Mandaue City Veterinary Office chief Nestor Taasan confirmed that reticulate pythons are not venomous.
He said he advised del Castillo to turn the reptile over to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Del Castillo said the python may have been washed off from the highlands during the recent heavy rains and on to the riverbank near Sitio Lub-ang where it nearly attacked Manzo’s children.
“Mo-kiat man gud ang mga bitin kung naa’y dako nga baha (Snakes come out of their habitats during floods). (During that instance) the snake might have gotten hungry and went on looking for prey,” del Castillo said.
Del Castillo recalled that a python also slithered into a house in Sitio Telecom and bit a certain Edwin Carlos last year.