A MOTHER of 14 succumbed at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) on Monday night after she was bitten by a venomous snake.
Kushmattie Sukdeo, 42, suffered the bite as she was about to take a bath in the yard where she lived, at Lot 60 Kersaint Park, La Bonne Intention (LBI), East Coast Demerara. Relatives told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that at about 21:00hrs, Sukdeo was in the bathroom when she felt a stinging pain and tried to shake off whatever had caused it on her right foot, but did not see what it was, although she suspected it was a snake.
She reported the incident to them after which they tied a piece of cloth to the spot where she suffered the bite. She later left to seek medical attention when the injury became more painful.
She was last seen alive when she limped her way out to the public road, and relatives only learnt she had died when someone from the hospital telephoned, around 23:00hrs, to say there was an emergency.
One of them, Natasha (only name given) said she had asked the injured woman whether she wanted to be accompanied to the hospital, but she declined the companionship and they parted when Sukdeo boarded a minibus.
By the time they eventually got to GPH, Sukdeo had already been pronounced dead, and her body taken to the mortuary.
However, hospital staffers said her stomach had been pumped thrice, but there was no response.
The family is awaiting a post mortem examination to ascertain the cause of death after making a report at Beterverwagting Police Station, also on the East Coast Demerara.
The youngest child of the deceased housewife is two years old.
The woman’s demise shocked her relatives, some of whom were in obvious grief yesterday as they erected a tent and weeded the yard to host a wake.