CAIRO— Locked in a bitter political feud, the leaders of Egypt and Turkey can’ t agree on much these days. But when confronted with the plight of a stricken magician this week, they set aside their differences in a scramble to save his life.

On Sunday an Egyptian cobra bit the Turkish illusionist Aref Ghafouri, who bills himself as the“ world’ s most extreme magician,” as he prepared for a show in the resort city of Antalya, Turkey.

Mr. Ghafouri, 28, who became famous after appearing on a Turkish version of“ America’ s Got Talent,” likes dangerous animals. His Instagram page shows him cuddling a lion cub, hugging a crocodile and kissing a cobra.

After the Egyptian cobra, which was part of Mr. Ghafouri’ s act, sank its fangs into his right wrist, he tied a cloth around his arm to stanch the flow of blood. At a hospital, doctors started looking for an antivenin to save him from potential paralysis or death.

First they sought help from the Pasteur Institute, the global disease and vaccine research center in France. But the institute informed them it had stopped making the antidote for Egyptian-cobra venom three years earlier, Turkey’ s Health Ministry said in a statement.

So the Turks were forced to turn to Egypt— a diplomatically sensitive option.

On Monday morning, Mr. Ghafouri, who had started to suffer from breathing difficulties and blurred vision, according to one doctor, was transferred to an air ambulance at Antalya airport. He wanted to go to Cairo, fearing his condition would worsen. But he could not take off: As a Turkish citizen of Iranian-Azeri origin, he needed a visa.

For hours, diplomats from both countries wrangled over his fate, according to Turkey’ s pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah.

“ He’ s doing very well,” Dr. Nabil Abdel Maksoud, a professor of clinical toxicology at Cairo University, said in an interview after he administered the final dose of antivenin.“ He walks, he talks. I’ m waiting for his enzymes and vitals to get back to normal, but he should be 100 percent fit in a couple of days.”

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Milbourne Christopher Foundation

2018 Milbourne Christopher

Foundation Awards September 29, 2018 New London, Connecticut

The committee has unanimously voted the following names in the categories listed:

2018 Award Winners-

Master ' s Award: Bill Smith

Mentalist: James Mapes

Close-Up Award: Jon Dorenbos

Illusionist: Peter Gossamer

Literary: Samuel Patrick Smith

Youth Award: Ryan Lally

Lifetime Achievement Award: James Rainho

Ambassador of Magic Award: Jimmy Brown