According to the patient’s family, the man tried to snatch the cobra, hoping to sell the animal to have money to pay school fees for his kids. He was bitten by the snake in the thigh area.

The hospital doctors said this was the first time they had seen a big live snake with a patient.

"The whole staff and patients at the Emergency Ward were in a panic," doctor Tran Lam Ngoc Thanh of Tay Ninh Province’s General Hospital told VietNamNet.

Upon entering the hospital, the man was awake and the snake was alive. At the time, the man had to hold the snakehead tightly to prevent it from biting him. The snake was wrapped tightly around the man’s arm.

Doctors used tape to tie up the snake's mouth and the victim released the snake into a bag. It was a king cobra of about 2.5m long and 4.6kg in weight.

The man was brought to a hospital with a big snake wrapped around his arm. Photo: T.A.

Some 30 minutes after being treated by doctors, the man turned pale and had difficulty breathing so he was transmitted to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for treatment.

According to the latest news, the wound caused by the snake bite is necrotic, so the patient will need a skin transplant when his condition becomes more stable.

Doctor Nguyen Ly Minh Duy from the Emergency Recovery Ward of Cho Ray Hospital told VietNamNet that the man needed a ventilator and he also suffered kidney damage.

Lien Anh

Snake village struggling big losses due to Covid-19

Snake breeders in a village in the northern province of Phu Tho have recorded heavy losses because of the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Vietnam, snake bites a risk in summer

As summer arrives, so does an increase in the number of people bitten by venomous snakes.