After a snouted cobra bit him on the testicles inside a toilet, a man narrowly avoided losing his genitals.
The 47-year-old was on vacation in South Africa when he needed to go to the bathroom.
As nature was calling, he didn't notice the extremely venomous snake sitting at the bottom of the toilet bowl as he sat down.
We guess it wasn’t just nature calling but biting too! The snake ended up digging its teeth into his sack.
The snake injected its venom into the man's genitals, and as an obvious result he was in excruciating pain.
The man was airlifted to the nearest hospital (350 kilometres away), but by that time the pain had moved from his genitals to his stomach and chest.
The doctors noticed that his genitals were swollen and had turned a deep purple colour, indicating scrotal necrosis.
*Don’t worry if you grabbed down there in discomfort, we understand, imagine the pain...*
To deal with the immediate risk, they injected him with an anti-venom, tetanus, and broad-spectrum antibiotics.
Doctors then had to deal with the dying sack, where the snake had dug its teeth.
They performed a 'surgical debridement,' which includes cleaning the injury thoroughly and removing all of the thickened skin, infected, and dead tissue.
His penis had also been injured during the encounter, requiring a debridement.
After nine days in a South African hospital, the man was eventually taken back to the Netherlands, where doctors reported it was the first instance of scrotal necrosis with that snake species.
How good is it that we don’t have snakes in New Zealand?
