Comprehensive Antivenom Treatment Centre
The Comprehensive Antivenom Treatment Centre at Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai is a dedicated, round the clock unit that brings together emergency care, polyvalent antivenom availability, intensive care, dialysis, ventilator support and specialist backup under one roof. Designed for the high snake bite burden of central Kerala, the centre treats every bite as a time critical emergency.
Why a dedicated antivenom centre matters in Kerala
According to the ICMR Million Death Study, India records an estimated 58,000 snake bite deaths every year, the highest in the world. Kerala, with its dense plantation belts, paddy fields and Western Ghats foothills, sits in a high incidence zone. Kottayam, Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts together report a steady volume of envenomation cases each monsoon, and the difference between full recovery and a fatal outcome often comes down to two things: how quickly the patient reaches a hospital with antivenom in stock, and whether that hospital can manage the complications that follow.
What the Comprehensive Antivenom Treatment Centre offers
A snake bite is rarely just a wound to be dressed. Severe envenomation can trigger kidney failure, respiratory paralysis, internal bleeding or compartment syndrome within hours. The centre is built to manage all of these in parallel, without transferring the patient to another facility.
Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation available for severe respiratory or cardiac failure that does not respond to ventilation.
Resuscitation, airway management and immediate ASV initiation on arrival.
Indian polyvalent antivenom maintained against the Big Four, with replenishment protocols.
ICU led by a DM critical care specialist with experienced intensivists and nurses, running twenty four hours.
Invasive and non invasive ventilation for neurotoxic bites that progress to respiratory paralysis.
Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy for haemodynamically unstable patients with acute kidney injury, alongside conventional dialysis.
Integrated care for envenomation that affects kidneys, coagulation and the cardiovascular system simultaneously.
For krait and cobra envenomation with neuromuscular complications.
For tissue salvage, wound debridement and management of compartment syndrome.
Immediate access to blood products for hematotoxic envenomation.
Snake bite is a medical emergency
Do not wait for symptoms to worsen. Reach the hospital as fast as possible.
Emergency: +91 82816 99242 Enquiry: 04822 359 900Snake bite first aid: what to do, what not to do
The minutes after a bite are decisive. Most preventable deaths from snake bite in India are linked not to the venom itself, but to delays caused by traditional remedies and incorrect first aid. Follow these evidence based steps.
Do
- Stay calm and reassure the victim. Panic increases venom spread.
- Move the person away from the snake to prevent a second bite.
- Immobilise the bitten limb with a splint, the way you would treat a fracture.
- Remove rings, watches, bangles and tight clothing near the bite before swelling begins.
- Note the time of the bite and any symptoms as they appear.
- Take a photograph of the snake from a safe distance only if it is easy and safe to do so.
- Reach the nearest hospital with antivenom as quickly as possible.
Don’t
- Do not apply a tourniquet. It can cause loss of the limb without slowing the venom.
- Do not cut, slash or suck the wound.
- Do not apply ice, snake stones, herbal pastes or chilli powder.
- Do not give the victim alcohol, coffee or stimulants.
- Do not try to catch or kill the snake. Identification is helpful but not worth a second bite.
- Do not visit a traditional healer first. Hours lost are lives lost.
- Do not assume the bite is harmless because there is no immediate pain. Krait bites can feel painless at first.
Why Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai for snake bite emergencies
Mar Sleeva Medicity Palai is a 690 bed quaternary care hospital with over 200 doctors and 60 plus specialties working under one roof. For a condition like envenomation, where complications can come from any organ system, having every specialist accessible without inter hospital transfer is the single biggest determinant of outcome.
The Antivenom Treatment Centre operates as an integrated workflow: emergency triage starts ASV at the bedside, the medical intensive care team takes over for monitoring and life support, nephrology steps in for dialysis if kidneys fail, neurology and pulmonology manage paralysis and ventilation, and plastic surgery handles tissue complications. The blood bank, laboratory and radiology run twenty four hours, so coagulation panels, kidney function and imaging are never bottlenecks.
