Boy bitten by dog, losing both ears, is being monitored for traumatic brain injury

On May 4, Associate Professor Nguyen Hong Ha, Head of the Department of Plastic Surgery, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, said that the baby is now awake, can communicate, and is learning to eat by mouth, but is still tired and pale. The baby has also been vaccinated against rabies.

Doctors are continuing to monitor the patient's traumatic brain injury and abdominal, chest, etc. injuries.

When admitted to the hospital, the baby was bitten by a dog, causing severe injuries to the face and scalp, losing both ears and blood. The doctors performed emergency treatment, trying to patch and cover the peeled scalp to prevent the risk of infection. After that, they had to wait until the baby was out of danger before further intervention. Normally, the condition of peeling skin and exposing the skull bone, if the bone is not covered, will lead to osteomyelitis and necrosis that eats deep into the skull bone after a while.

"The baby's two ears are no longer available for transplant. Therefore, we have to wait at least 6 months before we can perform ear reconstruction," said Dr. Ha.

Doctor Ha said that ear reconstruction is the most complicated technique in cosmetic surgery. Ear reconstruction is done from autologous cartilage or using a prefabricated ear cartilage frame. If autologous cartilage is used, the doctor will take cartilage from the patient's ribs and carve it into an ear frame, requiring high technique. In this way, the patient must have two surgeries, implant and build the ear, and at the same time, the child must have a large enough chest to have enough cartilage frame to take and create the ear...

Currently, there are prefabricated artificial ear cartilage frames, requiring only one cosmetic surgery to cover and patch the skin over, shaping the child's ear. The price of an artificial ear frame is 60-70 million VND per piece, not including treatment costs...

"After 3-6 months, when the baby is stable, the entire scalp will be reconstructed, exposing the skull, with the goal of hair growing back normally. Then the patient's ears will be reshaped," said Dr. Ha.

Ms. Ha Thi Minh, the boy's mother, said that a few days ago, when the boy ran out to the field to call his brother home, he was chased by two dogs weighing about 30 kg from the neighbor's house, attacking him, causing him to fall into the field. The boy was discovered by his uncle, who used dirt and bricks to chase the dogs away, then took him to the provincial hospital for first aid and then transferred to Viet Duc Hospital.

According to statistics from Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, from the beginning of 2019 until now, there have been 11 patients bitten by dogs admitted to the hospital in serious condition and transferred to the department. Recently, there have been many cases of dog bites killing people across the country.