A 22-month-old boy in Australia was rescued from the stranglehold of a python by his grandfather at the last minute. According to a report by broadcaster ABC, the boy had played with his sister in the garden of the family property in Julatten, in the north of Queensland.
According to the mother, she became nervous when she lost sight of the little boy. She looked for him, looked first in the face of her three-year-old daughter and knew immediately that something was wrong, told Amanda Rutlands the transmitter.
An over four-meter-long python had thrice wrapped around her son Naish and bit into his arm. She tried to help her son - but in vain. Rutlands called her father to help as the snake began to choke the boy.
"The python was like a single muscle"
Even when combined forces, mother and grandfather were initially unable to release the reptile from the boy.
Only when grandpa drew a knife, repeatedly and finally cut off the head of the snake, Naish could be freed. "There was no other way," says Rutlands. "The python was like a single muscle."
The child came to a hospital for treatment. By now the boy is well, said the mother. The incident occurred on October 13, but was only now known.
Bites of pythons are not poisonous. In the past, however, there have been cases of strangleholds that have killed a baby.
In the US, a man recently survived several days in a bay with rattlesnakes.