Razia Umrath (5) suffered deep bites on her right cheek and shoulder after a stray dog pounced on her and bit her here on Sunday morning.
It was after breakfast that she and her brother Rabbani Hasan Khan decided to step out of their house in Basaveshwara Layout, Nagashettihalli, to play. The stray dog pounced on Razia and bit her, without any provocation.
Her father Shafi Khan, a construction worker, and mother Salma, who works as a domestic help, rushed her to a private hospital. She is in the intensive care unit now. The family has spent over Rs. 20,000 on treatment.
BBMP help
BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel said that he has directed Parvez Ahmed Piran, Joint Director (Animal Husbandry), to move a proposal to help the family with the medical expenses on humanitarian grounds. “The funds from the Mayor’s medical grants will be used for this. The priority is to ensure that the child gets the proper treatment,” he said.
Mr. Piran said that Razia had suffered category three bites. He said that the BBMP would bear the cost of the anti-rabies vaccination and anti-rabies serum that have been administered to the child. The child would require plastic surgery, he said.
The BBMP would take up anti-rabies vaccination for the stray dogs in the locality on Monday. The stray dog that bit Razia has been rounded up.
“We suspect that it is rabid. During observation, we noticed that its run was not coordinated and there were some changes in behaviour. It has also not been sterilised,” he said. Asked if the garbage crisis had resulted in increase in the number of dog bites reported, he said that there had been no such increase.
