A teenage girl was today recovering in hospital from a deadly snake bite after a desperate jungle journey by wheelbarrow, canoe and a rusty lorry.
Relatives pushed Sim Pala through muddy jungle tracks on a wheelbarrow, paddled her across rivers by canoe, and loaded her onto an old lorry to get her to a hospital 35 miles away in time to save her life.
The incredible journey through some of the world's most inhospitable terrain took seven hours - more than enough time for Sim to have died from the bite of the deadly Papuan Taipan snake, yet somehow she pulled through.
Last night, as she sat by Sim's bedside in the Port Moresby General Hospital, in the nation's capital, the 15-year-old's mother, Mabari Pala, told of the journey that had saved her daughter's life.
Sim had run down the steps of their home in Karekodobu village, in the Rigo region, to follow her mother, but as she set out on the grassy path the venomous snake sank its fangs into her left foot.
The girl ran screaming into her grandfather's house, about 100 yards away, where she explained she had just been bitten by a snake.
'Ten minutes later she was vomiting and started to cough up blood,' said her mother.
It was then, without any usable roads in the area, friends and relatives banded together to use whatever means were possible to get Sim to hospital.
They were unaware that the snake that had bitten Sim was one of the world's deadliest and victims could die within 30 minutes.
'We put her in a wheelbarrow and pushed her along until we reached the Kemp Welch River,' said Mrs Pala.
'Then we put her in a dinghy and carried her down the river, making several crossings, to a point where we were able to get a ride on a truck.'
But, she told The National newspaper, the truck could not go far because all roads in the area had been washed away by recent floods.
With Sim now in a coma, Mrs Pala and relatives found another wheelbarrow and pushed Sim for a mile to a first aid post, where they were told the teenager needed anti-venom - fast.
The group were eventually able to reach another health centre by phone where staff arranged for an ambulance to find its way through damaged roads.
Precious minutes ticked away as the group of friends and relatives waited anxiously for the ambulance. When it arrived another bumpy journey began for the young snakebite victim.
It was not until 2am that Sim finally arrived at the Port Moresby General Hospital.
'Thanks to the quick actions of her mother, father Pala Pala and other family members, Sim was quickly pumped with Papuan Taipan anti-venom and is alive to tell the story,' the newspaper reported.
The taipan is the major cause of snakebite death along the south coast of Papua New Guinea. It can strike with extraordinary speed and accuracy, and often sink its fangs into flesh multiple times.
Its venom causes excessive bleeding and paralysis, acute kidney failure and seizing up of the muscles of the heart. In the worst cases death can occur within half an hour.
A medical paper advises that people who have been bitten should be kept as immobile as possible and be transported to hospital immediately.
'Bringing this young girl part way on a wheelbarrow was unconventional but it almost certainly saved her life,' said a spokesman for the hospital.