Home | News | WE WOULDN’T HAVE SURVIVED IF NOT FOR TLC – SURVIVORS

WE WOULDN’T HAVE SURVIVED IF NOT FOR TLC – SURVIVORS

24/03/2024 16:57:00 Sifiso Dlamini

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SIDVOKODVO – Had it not been for The Luke Commission (TLC) over 800 snakebite victims would not be alive to share their stories.

This was derived from the testimony of some of the snakebite survivors who shared their stories during the first ever Eswatini Snakebite Survivor Support Group meeting held at TLC in Sidvokodvo yesterday. Over the past five years, TLC has saved the lives of 814 snakebite patients, who are alive today to tell their stories to the world. Meanwhile, over the past year alone, TLC has treated over 313 snakebite victims, referred from over 32 different facilities with treatment ranging from observation to ICU admission with ventilator support. The most commonly seen bites are from black mamba, puff adder and Mozambican spitting cobra. Snakebites occur most frequently in the Lubombo Region with 40 per cent of the victims, followed by the Manzini Region, at 30 per cent, Shiselweni at 23 per cent and Hhohho where seven per cent of the snakebites were recorded.

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Every snakebite victim including over 570 patients admitted at TLC over the past two years had survived. Of note, a majority of the survivors were minors. During the support group meeting, some of the survivors shared their stories and praised TLC for saving their lives when they had lost all hope. One of the survivors, Nomsa Ndwandwe, she was bitten by a black mamba. She said she would not have survived had it not been for the care and treatment she received from TLC. She relayed that she was bitten by the snake while tying her goats near her home. Ndwandwe said when she returned home, she was already sweating and losing strength. She said she was carried by her children in a wheelbarrow to a neighbours homestead, who had a car. Another survivor, Neliswa Mondlane, who survived a cytotoxic bite from a Mozambican spiting cobra on his left leg also shared his experience and journey to survival. He said he was bitten by the snake while asleep in Big Bend on the sixth day of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

He said he had to undergo two operations to save his leg, one of which cost E125 000, which was fully paid for by TLC. Mondlane said he had to undergo a skin grafting operation, which was performed at Women and Children Hospital in Manzini. “I had no idea where my family would get the money to pay for the operations, as they were too expensive, however I was surprised and overwhelmed with emotions when I discovered that TLC had taken care of all my medical bills,” he said. Elaborating, he advised that it was important not to panic when bitten by a snake, as that could cause an adrenaline rush and in turn result in the venom spreading faster, which could increase the chances of one dying.

He also mentioned that he was grateful to TLC for saving his life and in return he decided to look for a job at the institution so he could also assist others after he made a full recovery six months later. Mondlane is currently employed under then IT department at TLC. A survivor who is a minor, Sibiyelwe, also heaped praise to TLC, for saving his life. He said he was grateful that he survived so he could continue to assist his father looking after his cattle. Another minor survivor, Cebolenkhosi’s parent who shared his experience in a video clip played at the meeting said he had lost all hope of his son surviving. “Had it not been for TLC my son would not be alive today,” he said.

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He further commended all those who supported TLC including government and urged them to continue supporting the institution, which was a blessing to emaSwati. Also present during the meeting was British High Commissioner to Eswatini, Simon Boyden, who said he was delighted to be part of the celebration, which was a celebration of life. “Today is a celebration of saved limbs and a celebration of the love that The Luke Commission and the Eswatini Antivenom Foundation have dedicated to this country’s health,” he said. Boyden said whenever he visited TLC, it always seemed to be for a celebration, because amidst the sickness, the disease, the illness and in this case, the extremely unpleasant consequences of snakebites, there was always a reason to be hopeful. He noted that starting on September 1, 2023, during the snakebite season, there had not been one reported snakebite death in the kingdom, and this was the first time in Eswatini’s history that this could be said.

“From the British High Commission’s perspective, we’re just delighted to have been part of this journey over the last couple of years through supporting the community volunteers of Eswatini Antivenom Foundation (EAF). We are also engaged in supporting a new facility for education and awareness raising with the EAF,” said the high commissioner. Representing the Ministry of Health, Mbongiseni Mathobela, from the Neglected Tropical Diseases Programme said working with the two organisations, EAF and TLC, as a ministry they were now able to report globally about snakebites, so they could provide the World Health Organisation (WHO) with data from the country. “We are now confident to report about snakebites because of these two organisations,” said Mathobela. TLC Executive Director, Echo Nomsa VanderWal said they were thrilled to be joined by all present on the first event, where they were celebrating the survivors of snakebite and were excited for their recovery. “What we realise is when we see each other as our family member, it changes everything about our perspective and the person is no longer a stranger. They are unique and precious and unrepeatable. They deserve dignity and the best possible care to live a full and thriving life,” she said.

EAF Founder Thea Litschka-Koen said the reason they were there was to address the problem that even when a person survived a snakebite, they lived with it for the rest of their lives. While talking about snakebites as a largely overlooked tropical disease, she said she went out to the world stage so that the people out there who had the money could understand how the people were suffering in Eswatini.

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Litschka-Koen as part of EAF’s early work to advocate for the best possible outcomes for snakebite victims, said they started to teach the doctors on how to use the antivenom. Through this programme, they built trust within the health facilities around the country. She pointed out that they also established a treatment guideline and further made snakebite notifiable as well as began to collect data and were involved in research. She stated that the EAF needed the communities to become their ambassadors as well teachers. She urged the survivors to take their experiences back to their communities and emphasised on the need to make sure that people understood what to do in order to stop snakes from coming to their homes, what to do to prevent getting bitten and what to do if one was bitten. She said everyone was capable of saving lives and limbs by going back to their communities and capacitate people on the right and wrong thing to do.