By Dr George Jacob

Kochi, July 27, 2020: As Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc all over the world bringing nations to its knees; we hear stories human resilience of against odds.

Stories narrate how healthcare workers sacrifice lives to save others, individuals cook food to feed hungry elderly in the neighborhood forced to remain indoors. Some make masks to distribute free. We read about policemen delivering birthday cakes to scared children, and essential drugs and commodities to the sick forced to remain indoors during the lockdown.

But there are ordinary humans who take the shape of angels at times.

One such person is Jinil Mathew, who hit headlines by saving a snake-bit toddler with his courage and presence of mind.

The media reported about a family in Kasargod district of Kerala who had arrived from Patna on June 21 and were in quarantine since then at Vattakayam village. Their 1.5 years old girl was bitten by a viper on July 21 night when the toddler stuck her hand out of the bedside window. Her father Jeevan discovered the potentially lethal incident.

The scared parents rushed out of their home shouting for help in the wee hours. Their alerted neighbors only dared to crowd outside their home. Jinil Mathew, a headload worker, rushed in ‘like an angel,’ the child’s father narrated later. ‘I’ll always call him an angel because he saved my daughter.’

Jinil, living opposite Jeevan’s home, dashed straight into the room, killed the snake, and emerged with the carcass of the viper in one hand, and the bitten child in the other, speaking into his mobile phone pressed between his ear and his shoulder in filmy style.

By the time the ‘angel’ reached the road with his ‘spoils,’ an ambulance arrived to take the child to hospital. The toddler’s time was surely running out. Jinil had the presence of mind to call his friend operating an ambulance after he was done with killing the snake.

His friend Jomon also jumped onto the front seat of the ambulance in case an extra hand was required. The ambulance first sped to the District Hospital, from where they were directed to Medical College Hospital, Pariyaram in Kannur district. Two nurses and a doctor awaiting them rushed the child to the ICU.

The doctor who treated the child later told the media, that ‘she wouldn’t have been saved if she had reached him after 15 minutes.’ While Jeevan has gone back to quarantine, his wife chose to remain with her daughter making progress in the ICU. The ‘angel’ and his friend Jomon have also gone into quarantine in a school nearby.

Meanwhile, the world wrestles with the full-fledged pandemic that has infected 16.3 million and felled 649,000 till date.