Boy dies from snake bite in Leyte

KANANGA, Leyte, March 15  -- A 12-year-old boy from a remote village in this town died few hours after a venomous snake bit him in a rice field two kilometers from their house on Wednesday.

Victim Jason Tasan, a fifth grader of the town’s Libertad Elementary School, accompanied his mother in picking some spilled newly-harvested rice grains with other villagers when suddenly a snake attacked and bit his chest.

Beatriz, the victim’s mother, said his son went ahead of the group to gather more grains when she suddenly heard him shouting for help.

The victim’s mother rushed to her son and picked him up to look for help.

Beatriz, walked for two hours, carrying her son on her back as the boy complained of feeling weak and faint, before the child was given first aid by a traditional healer. Later, the boy was brought to a hospital in Ormoc City, some 30 kilometers away.

At the hospital, Jason was immediately injected with anti-venom but perished few minutes later.

The boy is the youngest of nine siblings and the second to die due to snake attack. A snake bite also claimed the life of another son of Beatriz in 1990, which give strength to the claims of several villagers that venomous Philippine cobra species can be found in their area.

It has been the tradition of their village during harvest season to gather the spilled rice grains that are offered to them for free. Jason even missed school that day to assist Beatriz so as to get more. They belong to deprived family. (ERR/PNA)