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From a rat biting a baby's toe to a snake biting a nurse's ankle!! That's right: another appalling case of animals attacking at the rundown Western Regional Hospital.

This one happened a couple months ago on July 26^th. A nurse was walking to her room in the nurse's quarters after a late shift when a snake bit her on the left ankle! She went back to the hospital and she was treated immediately – a series of blood tests were conducted and the results came back normal indicating that it was not a poisonous snake. The nurse only had swelling on her ankle. But while the swelling has gone down and the nurse has resumed her duties at the hospital, this incident further highlights that major issue of infrastructural dilapidation at the 40 year old hospital. It started off with the pantry where there was a rat infestation: that room was renovated. But then, there is the problem with entire hospital being old and at ground level, with cracks and openings where rats can squeeze in and – as we told you – get into an incubator. That's the problem with the nurse's quarters at the entrance of the hospital as well. There are openings through the roof and windows where rats and snakes can slip in and apart from that – inside the quarters there are storage spaces with a lot of junk where snakes can lurk. It's not a happy scene at the hospital but when we spoke to Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Health Claudette Dakers Norales today, she told us that works have already begun to clear out and clean up the quarters and that they are working on securing another grant from the EU to repair the place. We note that the quarters are occupied at this point by nurses on shift who can't go home due to transportation issues, and nurses from Medical Mission Groups.