KUTTIADI: Located at the hillocks of Poyilomchal in the Kozhikode-Wayanad border, Plakkaat house has become synonymous with ‘Visha chikitsa’ (poison treatment) over the past five decades. Be it the venom of cobra, saw-scaled viper, russel’s viper or krait, the father-son duo - Plakkaat Mathew and Saji Mathew - offers an effective treatment at their house using traditional ayurvedic methods. Locals testify that if the affected person arrives here even with a bit of life, he will be saved.Having saved thousands of lives from the hands of death, Plakkaat Mathew has a story to tell on how he mastered this traditional way of treatment. It was during the summer of 1956 that Plakkaat Mathew was bitten by a viper when he was on a hunting spree with his friends in the forest. As there was hardly any effective treatment available for poison in the Malabar region during that time, he was taken to Erumely in Pathanamthitta in a bid to save his life.Later he came back to Poyilomchal mastering the traditional ayurveda treatment and has saved several lives till date. “Once I learnt the treatment, people started to flock from Wayanad, Kannur and various places in the Kozhikode district. Our treatment is based on ayurveda. Viper venom is the most difficult to cure among various snake poisons but we have the effective treatment for it too,” 86-year-old Mathew said.Though they couldn’t be termed as professional physicians, their success is evident from the fact that patients abandoned by the Medical College and other hospitals had been cured under their treatment. One of the major advantages of their treatment is that they can diagnose the kind of poison by just seeing the injury and the symptoms whereas in the Allopathy medical practitioners have to conduct tests to confirm it.“This is the most effective kind of treatment for the snake poison prevailed in the state a couple of decades ago. Now the traditional poison treatment is on the decline in the state. But our own experience of treating nearly 70,000 people during all these years is a testimony that the traditional treatment still has a place in the minds of people. One of the major advantages of this treatment is that the patient need not be admitted, the only thing they should do is to take medicine and follow some restrictions on food,” Saji Mathew said.After Mathew lost eyesight due to old age three years ago, his son Saji Mathew took up the treatment. Much of the medicines for treatment are also produced by themselves. For this, the family is cultivating various herbs.
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