On Page 3 of The Fiji Times May 17, 1978 edition, the headline read, ” Boy, 14, survives a snake bite’.
The boy, Gavin Reid, was used to picking sea snakes or dadakulaci – but it was usually a small one and he was always very careful.
The latest one he picked bit him and took him to the brink of death.
The venom from the sea snake is more poisonous than the venom of an Indian cobra, Suva Aquarium operator Christine Brain said then.
Gavin, 14, of Allardyce Rd, Suva, was camping at Nukulau Island with friends that weekend when they found one of the black and white banded sea snakes under the jetty.
“It was about 5ft long and quite thick,” Gavin said.
“I tried to pick it up at the back of the head, but it managed to turn around and bite me on the back of the hand.
“I was not frightened then because I did not think it had really poisoned me, but I sucked the bite to make sure.”
About an hour later, he began feeling really ill.
“My tongue swelled up and felt paralysed.”
Then he had convulsions.
Two women who were with a group of other children staying on the island did as much as they could and gave Gavin a tablet to help control the symptoms.
“Thank goodness they were there.
“He might have died,” his relieved mother said. “They said they thought I was going to die on Sunday night,” Gavin said.
“I felt really sick the whole night and next morning, but was a lot better by Monday afternoon.”
There was a boat at the island, but it had no lights so the women were unable to take him back to the mainland to get medical help during the night, Gavin said.
They brought him home on Monday.
“We rang the doctor then but seemed to think if I had not died already I was going to survive, so I did not go to see him,” Once home, Gavin was quite recovered, with only a slightly swollen hand to show for his narrow squeak with death.
Mrs Brain said she had never heard of anyone else being bitten by a dadakulaci. “But it is a mistake to think they cannot,” she said. ”
They have fangs just the same and in the same place as any other snake and deadly venom.
“They appeared timid and reluctant to attack, and let children play with them.”
The University of the South Pacific biologist Dr Uday Raj said snakes had normal fangs but tended to leave people alone unless provoked.
For a dadakulaci to attack and bite was extremely uncommon, and he had not heard of any other case.
He said his opinion was that the venom could not be as toxic as a cobra, but it would produce the symptoms Gavin had.
