I refer to the malaysiakini report Cobra kills 'Snake King' .

While feeling extremely sorry and empathising with the family of 'Snake King' Ali Khan Samsuddin over his untimely and tragic death, I am also baffled to read from our newspapers that "... he was given outpatient treatment at Kuala Lumpur Hospital because his condition was reported to be not serious."

If this is so, then I think there is something not right in the normal management of patients with snake bites unless an otherwise there has been a 'breakthrough' in managing snake bites which I am not aware off.

Any medically-trained personnel worth his salt would agree that all patients with snake bites are to be admitted for in-patient management, basically for observation and certain investigations.

This becomes much more imperative when the type of snake is not known. In Ali Khan's case, the question of whether to admit or not to admit does not arise at all because of the glaring fact that it was a king cobra that bit him.

The potency of the neurotoxin in the venom is common knowledge and the amount injected into the individual is also beyond easy measure. As such nothing short of an immediate admission for observation would suffice.

It does not fit into my rational sense as to how could a person with a 'king cobra' bite be given out-patient treatment. Please don't tell me this is also 'Malaysia Boleh.'