A seven-year-old boy is recovering from an “unprovoked attack” on Sunday by four stray dogs in the Ban Tha Noon area of Phang Nga’s Takua Thung district. Yeunyong “Nong D-Max” Chairap, who is being treated at Phuket’s Vachira Phuket Hospital’s intensive care unit, is conscious and has a normal blood pressure but still requires constant medical surveillance to prevent possible infection.
The boy had emergency surgery on Sunday night for in-depth assessment of the deep wounds he suffered all over his body, including his face, arms and legs, said paediatrician Dr Natthawan Thepnarong.
Many state officials, including Phuket deputy governor Prakob Wingmaneerung, Phuket Red Cross Society deputy head Rattiya Wongmaneerung and Takua Thung district chief Bancha Thanu-in, have also visited the boy’s family to give them moral support.
Acting hospital director Dr Weerasak Lorthongkham assigned three teams (paediatrics, general surgery and skin graft team) to treat him.
As the boy was apparently traumatised, a psychiatrist will later join in to assess his mental health, she said adding that the priority as of now was in treating the wounds and vital signa.
The boy’s aunt Preeda Maimad, 39, said she and two children used wooden sticks to fight off the four strays that were mauling Yeunyong but not before he had sustained about 100 deep bite wounds.
The boy’s mother Lampaen Taemsi, 43, said the four stay dogs – one of which was reportedly once a pet dog but it became so fierce that its owner let it go – often roamed the seaside area in the back of her home and attacked chicken or a piglet and even once was hostile towards her children.
Lampaen has filed a complaint with the Khok Loy police and urged the authorities to help her son.
The four dogs in question were captured and locked up in a quarantine cage for seven-day observation, while tests are carried out to establish if they have rabies.
