A little girl is lucky to be alive after a cobra slithered into her bedroom and bit her on the face as she slept.
Six-year-old Mikayla-Sue Grove awoke complaining of a toothache at home on a farm near the town of Ballito in eastern South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.
But when her mum, Inge, and dad, Ludwig, came into her room, he realised a snake in there was the real cause of the problem.
He ushered out Mikayla-Sue and her sister Izabella. But the cobra then spat its venom into Inge’s eyes, temporarily blinding her.
The reptile was later identified as a Mozambique spitting cobra, which sprays venom through the tips of its fangs into enemies’ eyes.
Mr. Grove told South African media how he then rushed the family to the Alberlito Hospital around 10 or 15 minutes’ drive away.
His blinded wife took a bottle of water with her and continually rinsed her eyes on the journey, which he says probably saved her sight.
Snake expert, Arno Naude, recounted on a social media page dedicated to snake attacks that doctors had to put a tube into Mikayla-Sue’s rapidly swelling throat to allow her to breathe.
Her dad told how medics used 17 doses of an anti-venom treatment over the next 12 hours.
Pictures show her severely swollen, with a bite mark on her chin.
Inge’s sight is now restored and her daughter’s life is out of danger, though she remains in the hospital’s intensive care unit.
Mr. Grove said: “Mikayla is doing much better, the tubes have been removed, she is very responsive and looks around, eyes wide open.
“Still in ICU, but I think I can safely say she is out of danger.
“We will know for certain over the next two to three days what the extent of the tissue damage will be.”
A snake-catching expert was called to the house shortly after the attack, and successfully evicted the snake. It was not clear whether he put it back in its natural habitat.
The species, considered among Africa’s most dangerous snakes, is fairly common in the south-east of the continent.
It is known to be easily provoked into its defensive behaviour of rearing up, spreading its hood and spitting its venom up to six feet into a perceived attacker’s eyes.
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