Officers of the Air Surveillance Service (Servicio de Vigilancia Aérea) managed, this Sunday, together with the Red Cross (Cruz Roja), to save the life of a Cabécar indigenous who had been bitten by a poisonous snake. The man, identified as Pedro Ramírez Soto, 27, had a wound in his left heel.
According to a statement from the Fuerza Publica (National Police), pilot Roberto Cortés and co-pilot Róger Hernández, as well as Cruz Roja paramedic Jeffrey Peraza, left at 10 a.m. the San Jose airport and after landing in Guayabal de Alto Telire, Talamanca, Limón, the officials had to walk almost half an hour in the mountains to reach the ‘rancho’ where the patient was.
The young man was taken to the airport in Limón, where they landed at 12:15 p.m. then by ambulance to the Tony Facio Hospital where the man is recovering.
There are 22 species of venomous snakes in Costa Rica. The most dangerous by far is the fer-de-lance (Bothrops asper), known as a terciopelo in Spanish. Here is a link to Javi the Frog’s Travel Blog Top 10 Deadliest Animals in Costa Rica and the Instituto Cloromiro Picado Instituto Clodomiro Picado’s venomous snakes in Costa Rica.
