A two-month-old girl was admitted to Sion Hospital after being bitten by rats on Monday. The rats ate up her nose, upper lip and left ear.
A two-month-old girl was admitted to Sion Hospital after being bitten by rats on Monday. The rats ate up her nose, upper lip and left ear. Unfortunately for little Bilkis, her mentally-ill mother was sleeping at that time and her father, a night watchman, was at work.
Doctors at the hospital are trying to restore normal breathing and reconstruct her nose, ear and lips.
“The rat has eaten away her nose cartilage, ear cartilage and upper lip. There are multiple bite marks also in her body. She is presently breathing from her mouth. Luckily her eyes have not been harmed,” said Dr Paras Kothari, head of the pediatric surgery department at the Sion Hospital.
Kothari said Bilkis’ father first saw her in that condition. “He returned from work at 6am and saw the child crying in pain. He rushed the child to us immediately. We gave her tetanus injection, antibiotics and put her on IV fluid. We have removed the dead tissues. It will take another 15 days to completely clean the wound,” said Dr Parag Karkera.
The father in his statement to police and doctors said there are many rats in Dharavi where they live.
According to doctors, her mother is mentally ill and can’t take care of the child and her father comes to visit her for some time in the day. “On the first day, he admitted her and never returned. The mother was also not there. We thought Bilkis will become yet another abandoned child as her parents have not married. The next day when the father came to see her, we took his picture and address to ensure he doesn’t run away,” said Dr Kothari. The sisters and ayas in the ward are presently taking care of her as there is no one to look after her in the hospital.
“We have seen many rat bite cases. But this one is very bad. She will have to stay with the scar and being a girl it will be very difficult for her. We will reconstruction skin grafting only when she is at least 10 years old,” said Dr Karkera.
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