Shankar Rai was asleep in his home in Samastipur district in India when a cobra attacked and bit him, according to a news report by India Today.
A cobra’s venom is known to contain postsynaptic neurotoxins, which can easily spread rapidly in its victim’s bloodstream. This can cause the victim to have trouble breathing, because of a respiratory failure, and eventually lead to his death.
Shankar Rai, who felt like he was already dying and won’t make it through, went to his wife Amiri Devi and told her how much he loved her, according to a Gulf News report.
Besides telling his wife his love for her, Amiri Devi told the media that her husband sunk his teeth into her wrist so that they could die together. Shankar Rai died in the hospital, while his wife survived the incident.
“He told me he loved me too much and want to die together before grabbing my wrist and sinking his teeth into. I allowed him to do so,” told Amiri Devi to the media.
A local doctor who tended to Amiri Devi said she has been saved as her treatment began on time, according to a Newsweek report.
According to the World Health Organization, more than two-thirds of deadly snake bites happen in South Asia, with India recording more or less a thousand deaths in the country in 2017 alone.
(This story was first published in 2017 by India Today.)
