Child!
I guess he should survive - as people have been recurrently mentioning that it will depend on his strength to fight the poison. I guess that is the one thing he would have: a man gone through a life of hardship and injuries, his body knows the trade, and he has kept his condition after the rider-years by teaching the youngsters, riding and sporting continually.
Without the elves I probably would have wanted to write him dead. But now I guess it would not be a miracle if he lives after all.
