Viet Duc Friendship Hospital has just received an emergency case from Luc Ngan, Bac Giang, involving an 11-year-old girl being bitten by a dog in the neck, causing serious damage and requiring emergency surgery. The 18kg dog has lived with the family for 12 years and is considered a family member.
According to the family, when the baby is playing with the dog, suddenly the animal bit the baby's neck. Because the dog has been raised for a long time, fully vaccinated, the family is subjective, does not take the baby to the hospital immediately, but let the baby continue to live normally at home. At the meal, when the baby started chewing, family members discovered saliva and food from the wounds in the neck. This is a warning sign of deep damage to the esophagus, a situation that can cause serious infections, life -threatening.
Dr. Vu Duc Thinh - Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital said: When receiving children, doctors discovered the bite in the neck of the child was leaking saliva, causing doctors to worry about deep damage to important organs such as trachea and esophagus. Immediately, the doctors requested a computer -layer to assess the extent of damage. Fortunately, the trachea was not affected, but through the endoscopy, the doctors discovered that the esophagus had two holes. If not timely intervention, children may experience serious complications such as mediastitis, blood infection or prolonged esophageal leakage.
In this situation, the hospital underwent emergency surgery. Doctors expanded the wound to control the damage, and opened the stomach so that the child could eat through a tube, giving the esophagus time to recover.
Although dogs have been vaccinated against rabies, doctors still cannot completely rule out the risk of rabies virus infection. Rabies has a long incubation period, and when it does, the mortality rate is almost 100%. Therefore, the patient was consulted with epidemiologists and immediately injected with three doses of serum detoxification, along with one dose of rabies vaccine. Patients will continue to be monitored and vaccinated with all appropriate schedules to ensure safety.
The family still monitored the condition of the dog, and now, the dog still eats normally, no signs of abnormalities. However, the doctor asked the family to lock the dog and monitor for at least 10-14 days. In the case of dogs showing signs of rabies developing during this time, the patient will have a high risk of infection.
After surgery and intensive treatment, the patient was out of danger and is continuing to be monitored and cared for to recover.
