A 4-year-old boy was bitten on the face by a cobra while they were sleeping on a safari trip with their family in South Africa.
Despite surviving the horrifying ordeal, the unnamed boy was left with severe facial paralysis.
The 4-year-old boy is from Netherlands.
He was bitten by a Mozambican Spitting Cobra, also known as the Naja Mossambica, on an undisclosed date.
The boy was saved by doctors in South Africa using anti-venom.
12 days later, he was flown back to Holland.
He is currently being treated by Doctor Willem Rinkel.
In a paper that Dr. Rinkel published recently, he said that the snake bit him just under his right eye.
The boy reportedly arrived at Rinkel’s hospital with his right cheek paralysed.
The muscles in his lower eyelid were not working and the swelling in his face was causing him a lot of pain.
The Mozambique spitting cobra has a neurotoxin that is capable of killing victims, but it often blinds them and leaves them with disabilities and disfigurement.
This snake is known to spit its poison into the eyes of its prey from a distance of up to 10 feet.
Dr. Rinkel said that 2 incisions were made under the bite in order to drain the fluid that had built up under the skin of the boy.
The draining reduced the swelling in the cheek, however, it resulted in more problems.
Skin hardening and sensitivity in the area went away after the drain.
Rinkel and his medical team started the mime therapy right away.
The boy had to go through massage therapies, breathing techniques and was taught muscle contraction exercises in order to help the boy regain movement in his facial muscles.
Dr. Rinkel said that the boy regained the ability to open and close his right eye in just 7 months.
21 months after the therapy, the boy’s face had regained its symmetry.
Dr. Rinkel did not reveal any other information about the boy that was bitten by the snake.