Child Recovering from Dog Bite
By: Karis Pope
www.TheGrenadaStar.com,
Mississippi
January 16, 2004-- Five year
old Kaitlin Matthews was bitten on the upper part of her body Tuesday by a
large black dog, believed to be part Chow, chained on a cable at her
babysitter's house. According to the child's mother, Treva Matthews,
Matthews was leaving the babysitter's house to return home when the dog,
owned by local animal control officer Shane Lindsey, got free and came up to
the child. Lindsey is the brother of the babysitter who was watching
Matthews.
Her mother said that Matthews was petting the dog and playing with it when
it suddenly attacked her, biting her lip, her neck near the carotid artery
and the left side of her chest. Matthews was rushed to Grenada Lake Medical
Center by ambulance. From there she was transported to University Medical
Center in Jackson where doctors were concerned that the deep bite on her
neck near the carotid artery could swell and close.
According to her mother, doctors at the medical center determined that the
bite was not close enough to the artery that it would close the artery, but
are having the mother check the child every hour to make sure that she is
breathing normally.
The doctors told Matthew's mother that the wounds were extensive enough for
stitches but that they would not stitch them because they did not want to
stitch any possible debris from the dog's teeth into the child. The doctors
instead have bandaged the wounds and are continuing to check the swelling.
The dog has been quarantined, pending the results of a rabies test,
according to state law
