Shalabha Kalliath was still using crutches when she came back to Canada.Supplied
When Shalabha Kalliath went to a beach in Thailand last month, she was anticipating a fire show, not a snake bite that would follow the engineering student back to Canada and send zoo officials scrambling to get her anti-venom.
Ms. Kalliath was leaving the show when she stepped from the beach to the sidewalk and felt intense pain in the smallest toe on her right foot. “I thought it was a crab because I just stepped onto the sidewalk, and then I lifted my leg and the snake was just dangling from my foot,” said Ms. Kalliath, 26. She quickly flung it off her foot, sending it crashing into the wall.
Ms. Kalliath, who recently graduated with her master of applied science degree at the University of Waterloo, had landed in Thailand at the end of May while travelling in Asia, when she was bitten by what was identified as a Malayan Pit Viper.
"My leg went completely limp,” she said. Soon, Ms. Kalliath was on the ground, no longer able to stand up.
She was taken to a nearby clinic for tests before being transferred to the hospital, where she received doses of anti-venom. After four painful days, Ms. Kalliath was allowed to fly home.
“I was still swollen up to my waist,” Ms. Kalliath said. “I couldn’t walk. I was on crutches.”
When she returned to Canada in early June, still using crutches, she went for a checkup, and was told to go to the Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ont. Blood tests there revealed that her blood had become unusually thin, so she was admitted.
Rick Vos, lead keeper of reptiles and amphibians at the Toronto Zoo, couldn't get anti-venom for the Malayan Pit Viper, but did find vials for a related snake.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
“The moment they tied the band [for a second blood test], I already started bleeding,” she said.
Bites from the venomous snake can cause excessive bleeding due to blood thinning, as well as tissue damage, which can lead to amputations if not treated in time, said Andrew Lentini, senior director for wildlife and science at the Toronto Zoo.
The Ontario Poison Centre, housed at the Hospital for Sick Children, contacted the Toronto Zoo for anti-venom to treat Ms. Kalliath.
There, Rick Vos, lead keeper of reptiles and amphibians, jumped on the case. The Toronto Zoo didn’t have anti-venom specific to the Malayan Pit Viper, but it did have vials for a related snake.
“We thought it worthwhile, since we could get our anti-venom there quickly, that it wouldn’t hurt and may be beneficial to use our anti-venom,” Mr. Vos said.
He rushed six vials by courier to Grand River Hospital in Kitchener. (In the meantime, Mr. Vos found another zoo, the Indian River Reptile Zoo, northeast of Peterborough, Ont., with the specific anti-venom for the Malayan Pit Viper, which it sent as a backup.)
By the end of the weekend, Ms. Kalliath was well enough to return home.
While that type of bite is not usually fatal, “It is a serious bite,” said Dr. Lentini, referring to the potential for amputations with enough tissue damage. While antivenom doesn’t reverse the damage, Dr. Lentini said, it stops the activity of the venom in the body.
“Treatment with anti-venom is really just about the only treatment for envenomation,” he said. “So getting timely access to anti-venom is really important.
Ms. Kalliath is able to walk now, and the swelling has gone down significantly, though her leg is not yet fully healed.
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