Farm worker rushed to hospital with live COBRA wrapped around his arm

A farmer was rushed to hospital with a deadly cobra wrapped around his arm after it bit him while he was working.

Phan Vt, 38, was harvesting crops in Tay Ninh, Vietnam, when he disturbed he black king cobra in bushes alongside the field on Wednesday morning (Aug 19).

The labourer told doctors that he tried to scare the snake away but instead it reared up and lunged at his thigh - sinking its two deadly fangs into his flesh and unleashing its killer venom.

The 11ft long snake then wrapped itself into the man's arms while he ran away to shout for help.

Farm colleagues saw Phan with the reptile tangled round his arm and taped its mouth shut to prevent it from biting him again as he gripped its head.

They then took Phan - in agony from the bite - together with the snake to the emergency room in Tay Ninh General Hospital.

Shocked medics wheeled him in on a stretcher before pulling away they snake.

One nurse even later posed with the dead reptile stretched out in her arms. Dr Nguyen Thai Binh, Deputy Director of Hospital said: "The patient arrived conscious.

But after a few minutes, his bite turned purple and he had difficulty breathing caused by the venom spreading through his body.'' The doctors were able to remove the 3.5 metre long snake that weighs 4.5kg while extracting as much venom as possible from his thigh wound.

Phan suffered shortness of breath because of the venom so he was put into mechanical ventilation.

However, he had to be transferred into a different hospital after he was comatose due to respiratory failure.

He is now at the Cho Ray Hospital being taken care of by his family who are waiting for him to come round from the coma.

Dr Nguyen Thai Binh added: ''The victim's colleagues were right to bring him to hospital.

If they had tried to treat it themselves the venom would have killed him very quickly.'' Cobras are one of the world's deadliest species of snakes and their powerful venom can kill humans within a few hours.

They are responsible for thousands of deaths each year in India and Southeast Asia.