British man who survived Covid-19, dengue, malaria, gets bit by cobra in Jodhpur

A charity worker from Britain who survived coronavirus, dengue and malaria during a visit to India is now recovering from a cobra bite in Jodhpur.

Ian Jones, who is originally from the Isle of Wight, was admitted to a local hospital after he was bitten by an Indian black king cobra in a village near Jodhpur city last week, AFP reported. While he is experiencing blurred vision and difficulty walking, his doctors have said that these are typical snake bite symptoms that will pass with time.

“Jones came to us last week after a snake bite in a village in the region. Initially it was suspected that he is also Covid-19 positive (for the second time) but he tested negative for that,” Doctor Abhishek Tater, who treated him at the local Medipulse Hospital, told AFP.

“While with us, he was conscious and had snake bite symptoms including blurring of vision and difficulty to walk, but these are generally transient symptoms,” he added.

Jones, a former healthcare worker, shifted to India to run a charity-backed social initiative in support of traditional craftsmen in Rajasthan. “Ian was living temporarily in the social enterprise’s warehouse in Jodphur so he could be closer to the people he supports,” Claire Robertson, from Community Action Isle of Wight, which runs the enterprise, told the BBC.

“He was in an area of the warehouse that he’d made his living quarters when his adopted dog, Rocky, started barking, and when he reached out to soothe him the cobra, alerted by his sudden movement, bit him twice,” she explained.

Community Action Isle of Wight and Jones’ family have been able to raise over £12,000 on a fundraising website to help cover his hospital fees and travel back to the Isle of Wight in southern England, AFP reported.

“Dad is a fighter, during his time out in India he had already suffered from malaria and dengue fever before Covid-19,” Seb Jones, his son, said in a statement shared on the GoFundMe page.

indianexpress