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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Snake king Ali Khan dies from cobra bite
2006-12-02
TAIPING: Malaysia’s snake king Ali Khan Samsudin, 48, died as he had lived – handling the reptiles that he loved. His eldest son Amjad Khan, 21, said his father had been performing at a show in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday when he was bitten by a King Cobra.

Ali Khan, who regularly performs with his beloved snakes for charity and for a living, died at 1am yesterday at Kuala Lumpur Hospital where he had been recuperating.
We don't call it 'recuperating' when in fact you're dying. We call it 'dying'.
Amjad Khan related that when his father contacted him on Tuesday to tell him he had been bitten, the family had not been too worried. “He had been bitten by snakes many times before, including three times by King Cobras. The first King Cobra bit him in Taiping when he was 21.

“So we didn’t think anything would happen. I was just relaks saja (calm),” said Amjad Khan at their flat in Kampung Boyan here yesterday.

On Thursday night, his condition took a turn for the worse. Family members here received a call from Amjad Khan’s uncle to go to the hospital. “We rushed from Taiping at 11.30pm, but by the time we arrived he was already gone. We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye,” said the son. “Maybe his body couldn’t take it any more because of his diabetes.”
Snake venom on top of diabetes? Yup, that could be bad.
He leaves behind five children aged 13 to 23 from wives Mau Boh Bee, 48, and Jumabee Mohd Ibrahim, 33. Amjad Khan, who also works as a snake handler, said he would continue his father’s work despite the tragedy. “Many of my father’s shows have been cancelled, but this is a trade that has been passed down for five generations,” he said, adding that his uncle Husein Dasthagir, 48, also worked with snakes. “It’s our way of life and we can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Handling snakes runs in the family. Crazy definitely runs in the family.
Well known for his daring feats with cobras, Ali Khan had also made it into the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records, living in a glass enclosure filled with more than 5,000 scorpions for 21 days. He set another record by living with 400 snakes for 40 days.
You really have to wonder how the guy managed to live as long as he did.
Posted by:Steve White

#6  When I lived in India as a kid, we used to get snake charmers through our village periodically who would charge money to get rid of snakes in your yard. Of course it's purely coincidental that they would show up right about the time people began reporting cobra sightings around town.
Posted by: xbalanke   2006-12-02 16:34  

#5  The king is dead. Long live...
the next guy crazy enough to do this shit.
Posted by: tu3031   2006-12-02 15:01  

#4  Worse in one sense. In the time it takes to walk 100 steps you are dead. (different kind of poison. Stops respiration. But if you can get on life support quickly or have mouth to mouth you stand a good chance.)

Posted by: 3dc   2006-12-02 14:54  

#3  a 100 ft step snake got the snake man

Is that a Mamaba too? Sounds like something worse.
Posted by: Shipman   2006-12-02 06:43  

#2  "Bah, it's nothing! I've been bitten before so many tiiiimmmmeees ... gak!
Posted by: Zenster   2006-12-02 01:06  

#1  About 1962 or 63 our boy scout troop at Morrison (Taichung - near the AB) had the top snake guy from Taipei visit our clubhouse at the MAAG enlisted complex.

We could start by saying such shows are not appropriate. prior I had killed lots of nasty snakes - esp. white mambas after the show all of us were scared to death of the snakes..

This jerks idea of a snake show was to have about 8 cobras slithering in a circle surrounded by scared cub scouts and sadistic den mothers.

Then he would start skinning one and let the others aim for us. When one would get close he would set down the one he was skining and start in on the closests one. After all these were skined and he had cut out their gallbladders and poison sacs - putting them in various booze jars with strong spirits...
He started in on the bamboo snakes and mambas.

We used to stake out mambas for our cat but this guy made the cat look kind hearted and gentle...

The next week dad took me to see the largest live python they ever captured in Taiwan. (Damn thing really stared in my eyes for a long time).

At this point it was night lights on for a year.

Several weeks later a 100 ft step snake got the snake man while doing a show in his resturant.

Another side story like that.... we lived on a compound right across the street from the Taiwanese Airforce Hospital and pilots housing. We employed a "slow" guy to do minor lawn care and such on our campus (not mil). He loved snake meat and had watched the vendors do their thing so many times the poor fool thought he could do it to. He tied two white mambas to a stick. Started to skin one so the other bit him. Went to the other and the first bit him. Then he thought he better do something about it so he walked across the street to the ROC airforce hospital ER carrying the stick with the two snakes on it so they could give him the correct antivenom.

Talk about clearing out an ER!

he lived.



Posted by: 3dc   2006-12-02 00:34  

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