Kollam: Heartbroken and inconsolable, Habeera wept on hearing the news of her daughter Niya Faisal's death. Despite receiving the anti-rabies vaccination, the seven-year-old girl died due to rabies. Habeera says stray dogs are a big menace near their home. She also said that dumping waste in the area is a common sight, and even after repeated complaints, the authorities take no action.

Niya Faisal passed away while undergoing treatment at the SAT Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. Niya was bitten by a dog on April 8. She was taken to the Vilakkudi Family Health Center and then to the Punalur Taluk Hospital, where she received three doses of the rabies vaccine. However, it was of no use.

“There was no space left on my child’s body for another tube to be inserted. When I think of my loved daughter lying like that... didn’t they kill my child?” sobbed Habeera in grief.

“When I told the ward member about the dog menace, they said there is no law to kill stray dogs in the panchayat. But is there a law to kill me? Didn't they kill my daughter? She was watching TV sitting here. I had told her to go out and fetch a vessel from the other side. When the dog appeared in front of my house, I chased it away fearing it might bite a baby nearby. But it wandered away and bit my daughter. I can’t take this anymore. When we close doors during night, thirty to forty dogs will show up. They dump waste up on the slope. The day after my child was bitten, a police jeep passed over the waste site, but nobody paid attention. When it rains, the waste flows down. The dogs eat waste and eventually took my child’s life too. You should have seen my child on the ventilator — every time the red light blinked on the machine, I felt my soul leave my body. She lay there, her body still warm, but full of tubes. There was no place left to insert another tube. When I think of my daughter lying like that…”

“Injections around the wound would be given only at the taluk hospital — why can’t they be administered at the local health center? It takes half an hour to travel to the hospital from here, and again another half an hour to wait to take the test dose. If only these were available here...”. Habeera says the workers washed the wound immediately after the bite and took the child to the hospital without delay.

The incident occurred on April 8 while the child was playing in the yard. A stray dog came targeting a duck in the yard. As the child ran to save the duck, she was bitten on her knee. She was immediately taken to the Vilakkudi Primary Health Center and given the first anti-rabies dose.

She received her second and third doses on April 11 and 15. The final dose was due on May 6, but she developed fever before that. The bitten knee also became painful. She was later admitted to the Punalur Taluk Hospital and then to SAT Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for more care.