In Rahul's constituency, schoolgirl dies of snakebite in class

Wayanad (Kerala), Nov 21 (IANS) A young school girl died following a snake bite in her classroom in the Lok Sabha constituency of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi at Sulthan Bathery.The incident occurred on Wednesday at the Government School, Sulthan Bathery when 10-year old S. Sherin, a Class 5 student, was sitting in the classroom.According to her angry classmates, the incident occurred at 3.10 p.m. and no action was taken by the school authorities till 3.50 p.m.The school headmaster however said that by around 4.09 p.m, the girl was brought to the local hospital and by around 4.50 p.m., she started vomiting and then the doctors said she has to be taken to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital (about 2.30 hours travel time)."Enroute, she felt uneasy and was taken to the Vythiri Taluk hospital, where doctors advised us to take her to another hospital nearby but she died on the way," said the headmaster.Her classmates have blamed the school authorities for the delay in taking Sherin to the hospital.The incident occurred while she was sitting in her class and the snake surfaced from a hole in the classroom and bit her and quickly disappeared. Much precious time was lost after the school authorities dilly dallied about what to do.But, it was much later that the hospital authorities could diagnose that it was a snake bite, even though the girl's foot spotted marks and her leg developed a discolouration.The Wayanad district collector said he will find out what happened.
--IANS sg/skp/