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By Dipaneeta Das: A 4-year-old child from West Bengal’s Hooghly died on Wednesday afternoon after his grandmother took him to a ‘tantrik’ (occult practitioner) to treat a snake bite.
The boy has been identified as Surjit Baul Das. “The boy was playing in the field opposite his house when he put his hand inside a dugout and was bit by a snake,” a local said.
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The boy’s grandmother allegedly rushed him to a local tantrik instead of a doctor to treat the snakebite. “After the incident, the old woman panicked and took the boy to the tantrik. The boy’s parents were not home when it happened,” the locals said. His condition deteriorated due to the lack of medical assistance and he died the same day.
An official from the West Bengal State Health and Family Welfare Department visited the family and said that Surjit died due to lack of immediate medical assistance. “The boy was rushed to Polbar Hospital after the grandmother could not find the tantrik. However, he was later moved to the Chuchura District Hospital where he was declared dead upon arrival,” Block Sanitary Inspector Kunal Majumder said.
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Talking about precautionary measures to avoid similar mishaps, Majumder said, “Villagers have been made aware that cases of snake bites should be taken to hospital as soon as possible. All types of vaccines are stocked there. This incident could have been avoided had they taken the child to the hospital earlier. For now, the health department has spread bleaching in the area to avoid snakebites.”
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