Nine-year-old boy dies after being bitten by a snake in Urrao, Antioquia

Urrao, Antioquia  – The community of the municipality of Urrao, in the southwest of the department of Antioquia, is in mourning after the tragic death of a 9-year-old boy who was bitten by a snake while playing in a rural area of ​​the Encarnación district.

The unfortunate incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon when the young boy, identified as Dilan David Montoya, went out to play near a stream with other children from the village. According to witnesses, the boy accidentally stepped on the reptile while running barefoot, resulting in the bite.

The boy’s screams alerted the adults, who rushed to the scene. Upon noticing the bite, they took him by motorcycle to the nearest health center. However, due to the remoteness and the poor condition of the rural roads, the journey took more than an hour.

Upon arrival at the Urrao medical center, the healthcare professionals did everything possible to stabilize the child, but unfortunately, he already showed advanced signs of poisoning. The necessary antidote was not immediately available, and the boy was transferred to a more specialized hospital in Medellín. Sadly, Dilan died before reaching the hospital due to cardiorespiratory arrest.

The tragedy has raised alarms in the department’s rural areas, where venomous snakes are common, but medical resources for handling such emergencies are scarce. Local authorities and community leaders have demanded that the departmental government provide more antivenom to rural clinics and improve the infrastructure for transporting patients.

“This death could have been avoided. We can’t keep losing lives due to a lack of resources. We need health institutions to be prepared for emergencies like this,” said a distressed Sandra Pérez, a neighbor of the boy’s family.

The body of little Dilan was laid to rest at the rural school in the village, where classmates, teachers, and neighbors came to say goodbye amidst tears and prayers. His parents, visibly distraught, asked for respect for their grief and for justice so that this tragedy would not be repeated with another child.

The National Institute of Health noted that Colombia is one of the countries with the greatest diversity of venomous snakes in Latin America and that more than 4,000 cases of bites are reported each year, many of them in rural areas where access to immediate medical attention is limited.

The tragedy of Dilan David Montoya not only brings grief to his family, but also exposes once again the structural flaws in the country’s rural healthcare system. It is an urgent call to action to not abandon the communities living in the most remote regions of Colombia.