DURBAN - KwaZulu-Natal South Coast snake catcher Sarel van der Merwe thought it was the end after he was bitten by a green mamba he was trying to rescue over the weekend.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, Van der Merwe said he was bitten on the thumb while the swelling on his hand had gone down, his thumb was still swollen and sore.
“I was very lucky,” he said.
“Luckily the client could drive. I would have never made it. In the hospital I could see I’m going, it’s a terrible feeling,” Van der Merwe said.
“I won’t go out at night anymore, it’s too dangerous.”
On Monday Van der Merwe took to Facebook to share the kind of Saturday he had.
Van der Merwe said he went alone at night for a green mamba in Munster, in a semi-open ceiling at a home.
“I couldn't crawl on the roof and I had to cut the ceiling board and as the mamba got out I grabbed it with my grab stick and when I bagged the snake, my headlamp died on me and I got bitten,” Van der Merwe said.
“I managed to finish bagging the snake and got my client to phone Port Shepstone Regional Hospital to tell them that we were on our way.”
He said his car was slow but was lucky to meet up with a highway patrol car on the highway that rushed him in the patrol car to the hospital.
“The casualty department was ready for me and gave me anti-venom and adrenaline. Sunday morning they transferred me to a regular ward,” Van der Merwe said.
He said on Monday morning he received a call from a woman who spotted a green mamba in her cupboard. He told her to keep the door closed and when he is released from the hospital, he would go there.
“We went there and I removed it from the cupboard.”
“Thank God that I got through this and thanks to the hospital and great staff and for my friends that were there for me, (sorry that I got my friends and family through this),” van der Merwe said.
He also said only regional hospitals kept anti-venom.
Earlier, he had received a call out Mvutshini for a black mamba that was curled up in a mango tree.
He said after getting permission to remove some of the branches so he can get a better view of the snake, he used a ladder to get to the snake.
He was then able to grab the mamba with his longer grab stick but the snake was too long since it had wrapped itself around branches, it broke free of the stick.
“It was then I realised the head was very close to me. I managed to grab the tail and started to shake the snake as it was centimetres from my leg. At that point, I dropped my snake stick to give myself a chance to manoeuvre into a better position.”
“At that point, the snake dropped to the ground. We saw where the snake had hidden and when getting down from the ladder I found my long grab stick had broken, I then managed to secure the snake with my smaller grab stick and then bagged the snake safely, much to the relief of the audience,” Van der Merwe said.
The way his day ended, he said he wished the black mamba had been his last call out.
On Tuesday van der Merwe said thank you to those who cared and all the phone calls, messages and emojis.
He also apologised for not writing much because it was not easy since his hand was still in pain.
Daily News