Rajhmundary, May 19: A 57-year-old man, bitten by a rabid dog three months ago, did the unthinkable hours before he died of rabies. He bit his own wife, either out of fear or frustration or sheer madness.
The bizarre incident occurred at the Kakinada Government General hospital on Wednesday.
Kavuri Subba Rao, a farm worker from Undrajavaram in West Godavari district, was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday in a critical condition.
In the words of Nagamani, his wife, “this morning, I was attending to him when he suddenly bit me. I was scared. His condition deteriorated thereafter and he died this evening.” Doctors immediately administered anti-rabies vaccine to Nagamani. “Necessary haemoglobin was also injected. She is alright now.
There’s no threat to her life,” said hospital superintendent Dr MBR Sharma. Subba Rao had contracted rabies after he was bitten by a dog at Tirputallu village in T Narsapur mandal three months ago.
He consulted a local doctor who gave him an anti-tetanus injection instead of an anti-rabies vaccine.
“He was hale and hearty for a while. But recently, he began speaking incoherently and foam at the end of his mouth. His eyelids too kept drooping often. I brought him to Kakinada hospital for treatment as I wasn’t sure if the hospital in Eluru had the right medicines,” Nagamani said.
Dr Sharma said Subba Rao might have been alive had he been given anti-rabies vaccine immediately after the dog bite.
“Many people are not aware that they have to undergo full treatment for rabies,” he said, adding: “we have enough stock of the vaccine in our hospital.”
–Agencies