Five months after Nan was bitten she has not been restored to health

Ten-year-old Nan studies photos of snakes common to Laos to identify the species that bit her five months ago.

The likely species is the White-Lipped Pit Viper: Trimeresurus albolabris

It’s likely that the snake that bit ten-year-old Nan was the “White-Lipped Pit Viper.” This snake is found throughout Laos, and its appearance, behavior and habitat seem a close match to the circumstance of Nan’s encounter. (Pictured above are Nan and me searching the internet for photos of snakes that match Nan’s recollection.) Nan and her mother were collecting wild cardamom pods in the forest. As the girl reached under low-hanging tree branches, a green snake hidden among the leaves bit her on the back of her hand. Although Nan’s family rushed her from her village to the provincial hospital in Sekong for treatment, the effects of the bite appear to have inflicted irreversible damage to her hand and arm. Nan’s family report that the girl’s arm swelled so massively that her flesh split in three places: shoulder, forearm and hand. The effect of that trauma is evident in the multiple scars on her arm and hand. The bite occurred five months ago, but Nan’s arm appears to be steadily declining in viability. With each passing month, she has lost mobility and strength. Presently, she can’t lift that arm and has very weak grasping function in her hand. (With effort, she gave my fingers a
slight squeeze.)

This week We Help War Victims is transporting Nan and her mother to Vientiane to meet with physicians who can appraise her current condition and issue a professional judgment about her chances of regaining use of the wounded arm and hand. We are hoping that she might be a candidate for physical therapy that can reverse the withering of the arm, but we have been warned that the swelling she experienced may have so damaged the nerves in the arm that she may not be capable of executing movement.

While Nan’s case falls outside our organization’s stated mission of assisting “victims of war,” we included her in the troop of patients selected for transport to Vientiane this week because we had space in the vehicle that was carrying the other people, and her inclusion added only a little to the project cost. (And, since no other aid organization has shown an interest in her case it’s “us or no one” and time is of an essence. Among our donors are several who have declared their support should we encounter a case such as this.

Nan’s hand and arm swelled to the point that her flesh split in three locations: shoulder, forearm and hand.