A 66-year-old trader died after being bitten by a spectacled cobra in Kadayanallur, Tamil Nadu, prompting an internal inquiry and show-cause notices to two nurses at the government hospital where he was taken for treatment.
The deceased was identified as Sudarmani, a snack trader from Muthukrishnapuram in the Tenkasi district town of Kadayanallur. According to a report by Dinamalar, he was bitten while removing a sack from his house on the night of October 9.
Sudarmani was taken to the government hospital after the incident. His relatives alleged that he died because he did not receive appropriate treatment in time. They staged a protest following the death, bringing attention to the handling of a potentially life-threatening emergency at the public facility.
Premalatha, joint director of medical services in Tenkasi district, conducted an inquiry into the incident, the report said. She stated that notices seeking explanations had been issued to two nurses for allegedly failing to properly inform the doctor about the patient.
The notices concern the communication of information about Sudarmani’s condition and treatment needs. The report does not establish whether the alleged failure to alert the doctor directly caused the death, and the inquiry’s final findings have not been reported.
Snakebite cases require rapid assessment and treatment, making the flow of information between nursing staff and doctors a critical part of emergency care. In this case, the reported inquiry is focused on whether the patient’s condition was communicated appropriately within the hospital. The available report does not provide details of the treatment administered, the time taken to reach the facility, the availability of anti-snake venom or the specific medical cause of death.
The incident also highlights the role of district-level oversight in responding to complaints involving government hospitals. The joint director’s inquiry followed the relatives’ allegations and protest, while the notices give the two nurses an opportunity to respond to the charge that the doctor was not informed properly.
Kadayanallur police are investigating the death, according to the report. The police inquiry and the departmental process are separate proceedings, and further details about either outcome have not been made public in the supplied report.
The next formal steps are the responses from the two nurses to the notices, the completion of the medical-services inquiry and the police investigation into the circumstances of Sudarmani’s death.
