The story of Tengetile, a 13 year old girl, who was bitten and killed by a black mamba. January 2009.

Tenegtile's mother:

"On Wednesday last week my children went to go and pick some green pumpkin tops and they finished picking the green leaves they started to play so they say they must play hide and seek. Tengetile was the first to hide and she hid in the wrong place where there was a snake… it bit her on her left shoulder, and she ran home with all the children."

The mambas neurotoxic venom paralyses its victims. Breathing becomes impossible and the heart itself eventually stops.

Tengetile suffocated to death, very soon after reaching hospital, just a few hours after she had been bitten by the mamba.

Tengetile’s cause of death was not recorded at the hospital.

Her case is typical. It is now thought that snake-bite
has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and
around 20,000 people die every year here in Africa…