Woman sucks venom through her mouth from snakebite patients, falls sick

BHUBANESWAR: In an uncanny and weird incident, an Odisha woman fell unconscious and was hospitalised after she tried to suck venom through her mouth from a female snakebite patient who later died.

The whole incident which became the talk of the town happened on Sunday at Jhanjhana village in Keonjhar district.

As per reports, Jhunurani Behera was bitten by a venomous snake on Sunday. But instead of taking her to the hospital at Soro, her family took her to one Minati Dehury of the same village who claimed to cure her from snakebite as she claimed that she was possessed by a goddess.

The superstitious act claimed the life of Jhunurani.  And Minati’s stupidity left her ill and unconscious.

Claiming to have divine healing powers, Minati always said, “I’m possessed by a goddess who helps me cure patients. So, I tried to cure her of snakebite by sucking blood from the area where the snake had bitten her.”

“I did not feel anything initially, but after some time, when the Goddess left my body, I felt uneasy, my head reeled and I dropped unconscious on the ground,” she said.

A relative of Minati said, “She (Minati) was possessed by Goddess Mangala. She tried to cure the woman of snakebite, but shook violently and fell unconscious. So we called an ambulance and rushed her to the hospital. She is now recovering and we hope she will be alright within a day or two.”

Despite advancement of science and having adequate healthcare facilities, many districts in central, western and southern parts of Odisha still report superstitious practices to heal patients suffering from various diseases, leading to death of many of them.

The Odisha government has been conducting awareness drives in these districts. Some of the district administrations which have reported good results in stopping superstitious practices have been awarded at state and national levels.