Baby Bitten 100 Times By Pet Dingo-cross

[SwaY]

http://www.news.com.au/national/baby-bitte...r-1225912535871

Baby bitten 100 times by pet dingo-cross

A BABY girl mauled by her family's pet dingo-cross dog suffered more than 100 bite wounds, a doctor has told an inquest.

Twenty-two-month-old Kara Compton's injuries were described by two senior nurses yesterday as the most horrific they've seen.

Kara was in bed in her family's home at Bunyip, in Victoria's east, when the dog climbed onto her bed and mauled her.

She was found by her father and taken by ambulance to Dandenong Hospital, but went into cardiac arrest and died.

Emergency doctor Jonathan Lee, told a Victorian Coroner's Court inquest today that Kara was bitten more than 100 times in the February 2006 attack.

"(There were) easily over 100 full thickness puncture wounds to this child's body," he said.

Clinton Lawrey, who was charge nurse at the emergency department, wept as he described the injuries to the court.

End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.

Mr Lawrey, also a Country Fire Authority volunteer, said he had never seen a person with such horrific injuries.

"I will never forget it as long as I live," he said.

Juli Thomas, who was responsible for the resuscitation area on the night and has been a nurse since 1997, also wept as she described the events to the court.

"It is quite possibly the most horrific thing I have seen in my nursing career," she said.

Dr Lee said medical staff struggled to get an intravenous line into Kara so they could give her blood.

He said Kara went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead after about one hour of CPR.

Dr Lee said the severity of Kara's injuries was not initially made clear to him in a call from the ambulance service.

But he doubts Kara would have survived even if she had been immediately taken by helicopter to the Royal Children's Hospital.

"By the time she was discovered I think it was already too late," he said.

"You never remember the ones you save, but you always remember the ones you don't."

In a statement tendered to the court, Kara's father Stephen Compton said he fell asleep in front of the television and was woken by one of his children tapping him on the shoulder to say Kara, who had Downs Syndrome and a chronic lung disorder, had fallen out of bed.

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realising anything was wrong.

A short time later his wife turned on the bedroom light and they saw blood on Kara's clothes.

"As we undressed her we could see teeth marks which I straight away realised was from a dog," he said.

The dog was destroyed.

The inquest before Coroner John Olle continues today.

[FranVT]

How incredibly sad

Sidenote: I could be way off base and talking complete rubbish here but is it possible the dog was culling the weakest member of the pack in order to maintain general health of the pack? The little baby sounds like she was quite sickly I know it's irrelevant but it's a brain-bubble I had.

[Staranais]

How incredibly sad

Sidenote: I could be way off base and talking complete rubbish here but is it possible the dog was culling the weakest member of the pack in order to maintain general health of the pack? The little baby sounds like she was quite sickly I know it's irrelevant but it's a brain-bubble I had.

That is very sad. Who knows what set the dog off? Could just have been prey drive - babies move funny, make funny noises, can confuse dogs sometimes who don't realise they're really human beings.

Sad accident for everyone. The dog should have been kept out of the room, but who hasn't made a mistake before and left a door open, or not closed it fully? I know I have.

Poor little girl.

[Debyork2]

I think, perhaps, the fact that the little girl had disabilities may have been a factor, something to do with the stomach tube maybe? Or maybe the dog crawled into her bed and got angry because the she moved around, who knows? A terrible tragedy, one of my granddaughters has Down Syndrome and I can't help but think how I would feel if it were her, certainly the little girls disabilities may have prevented her crying out as loudly or struggling as strongly as a child without Down Syndrome, I know quite a lot of kids with Downs and for the most part they are pretty hale and hearty but this little girl obviously had some extra problems. Very sad.

[Sue]

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realizing anything was wrong.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites?

The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma.

Poor child.

[poodlefan]

"(There were) easily over 100 full thickness puncture wounds to this child's body," he said.

That's 100 punctures, not 100 bites. Trust the press to get that wrong.

That poor little girl. My money would be on predatory behaviour but in the end, it doesn't matter. A child is dead.

[Debyork2]

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realizing anything was wrong.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites?

The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma.

Poor child.

I wondered about that too......even in the dark you would think he would notice something amiss.

[PaddyForever]

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realizing anything was wrong.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites?

The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma.

Poor child.

I wondered about that too......even in the dark you would think he would notice something amiss.

Yeah, I wondered a bit about this, too. Even if it was 100 puncture wounds and not bites, there should have been a lot of blood. Personally, as a Mum of four, I would have turned on a light to inspect the child for damage, even from a suspected topple from bed. Whether they were crying, or strangely silent. The other night, I thought I heard something from my room, and went to check the children. My two-year old was uncovered, and as I went to cover her, I felt wetness. I turned on a lamp and realised that she had vomited, even though she was already back asleep, so unfortunately, I had to wake her to change both her and her cot bedding. Even if a child was disabled enough not to be able to cry out during an attack, and even if the dog was strangely silent during it, I would have thought the parent would have checked the child over, or noticed blood on his hands from picking the child up, especially if the child lost so much blood as to go into cardiac arrest, which usually occurs from blood loss...I hate to say it, but I think there's something a bit odd here...And I'm sorry for sounding suspicious if it's all a genuine accident...Poor little darling.

[Magstar]

Poor girl

The story does seem a bit strange to me though. Why did the child who notified the father not notice anything? If the child had a peg to her stomach, wouldn't the father have checked to make sure that was ok if she had fallen? (I know nothing about those pegs so I could be completely wrong!) Just seems a bit odd that he wouldn't have made sure she was ok before putting her back to bed...

[poodlefan]

Yeah, I wondered a bit about this, too. Even if it was 100 puncture wounds and not bites, there should have been a lot of blood.

Not necessarily. Its a bit like stab wounds. In the movies, you see people covered in blood after a stabbing. In reality (info gleaned from forensics folk I know) much of the bleeding from an invasive puncture may be internal. A person can be fatally stabbed and have virtually no external bleeding. They can bleed out internally.

Edited September 1, 2010 by poodlefan

[megan_]

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realizing anything was wrong.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites?

The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma.

Poor child.

I wondered about that too......even in the dark you would think he would notice something amiss.

I have a friend whose toddler fell out of bed. In her sleepy state, she put her little one back into bed and went off to sleep. When she dound her daugher in the morning, her pillow was covered in blood. Fortunately, the child was okay, but for me it is totally believable that someone could, in a sleepy state, not realise that something really bad has happened.

[Magstar]

He said he picked up Kara, who also wore a peg that allowed her to be fed directly into her stomach, and put her back into bed without realizing anything was wrong.

How could the child have such horrific injuries but that the father didn't notice anything wrong when he placed the child back in her bed? Surely her clothes would have been soaked in blood, saliva and torn from some of those 100 bites?

The child must also have been distressed or gasping for breathe is she had chronic lung disease and had suffered that sort of trauma.

Poor child.

I wondered about that too......even in the dark you would think he would notice something amiss.

I have a friend whose toddler fell out of bed. In her sleepy state, she put her little one back into bed and went off to sleep. When she dound her daugher in the morning, her pillow was covered in blood. Fortunately, the child was okay, but for me it is totally believable that someone could, in a sleepy state, not realise that something really bad has happened.

Yeah, I guess that true. I know how useless I am when I first wake up!

I can't even imagine what the parents must be feeling.

[Bilbo Baggins]

If she was on intermittent PEG feeds the peg is flush with her skin.

[PaddyForever]

Yeah, I wondered a bit about this, too. Even if it was 100 puncture wounds and not bites, there should have been a lot of blood.

Not necessarily. Its a bit like stab wounds. In the movies, you see people covered in blood after a stabbing. In reality (info gleaned from forensics folk I know) much of the bleeding from an invasive puncture may be internal. A person can be fatally stabbed and have virtually no external bleeding. They can bleed out internally.

I must admit that I have heard that about stabbing wounds myself, I just didn't think that most extensive bite wounds would be that neat? And there must have been at least a few bites, to produce over a hundred puncture marks? In my experience, there would be tearing injuries by side to side shaking during an attack, and for the doctors and nurses to have found the injuries so horrific, I would have thought more open wounds/obvious bleeding would have been involved. Then again, easy for me to make that ussumption without being an actual witness to the injuries, I guess. And maybe I'm just a bit too protective, but I've always checked my children over after a fall, and asked them if they were o.k., and I just didn't think that a child so badly injured would have been able to respond much at all. Of course, the father may have just assumed that she'd fallen back to sleep, if she was unresponsive, but I myself would have still wanted to check the child over, even if I was half asleep. I am a breast-feeding Mum and had 3 children under four, so I am cronically sleep deprived, which is why I'm usually on the forum at crazy hours! Still, if my child, who had a feeding tube inserted, fell out of bed, I would put a light on and check them over, and would not be satisfied to assume that they were o.k. until I'd done so. As a 'special' child, and under 2 yrs, this little girl may not have been verbally communicative much, as yet, but that would only have made me check her more thoroughly. That's just what I would do, mind you.

[Souff]

I am not sure that this should be discussed here.

This is a current inquest into a child's death and a finding has not been given.

Will check with Troy.

Souff

[Debyork2]

I would think it is perfectly alright to discuss it......it's not as if it isn't already in the public domain!

[Souff]

The media put it in the public domain and take little or no responsibility for what happens after that.

The inquest is CURRENT and as I understand it is the same as a matter that is currently before the courts ... sub-judice laws usually apply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_judice

"In law, sub judice, Latin for "under judgment," means that a particular case or matter is currently under trial or being considered by a judge or court. The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers.

In England and Wales, Ireland,[1] New Zealand, Australia, India, Pakistan, Canada, and Israel it is generally considered inappropriate to comment publicly on cases sub judice, which can be an offence in itself, leading to contempt of court proceedings. This is particularly true in criminal cases, where publicly discussing cases sub judice may constitute interference with due process."

Souff

Edited September 1, 2010 by Souff

[PaddyForever]

The media put it in the public domain and take little or no responsibility for what happens after that.

The inquest is CURRENT and as I understand it is the same as a matter that is currently before the courts ... sub-judice laws usually apply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_judice

"In law, sub judice, Latin for "under judgment," means that a particular case or matter is currently under trial or being considered by a judge or court. The term may be used synonymously with "the present case" or "the case at bar" by some lawyers.

In England and Wales, Ireland,[1] New Zealand, Australia, India, Pakistan, Canada, and Israel it is generally considered inappropriate to comment publicly on cases sub judice, which can be an offence in itself, leading to contempt of court proceedings. This is particularly true in criminal cases, where publicly discussing cases sub judice may constitute interference with due process."

Souff

Really- Who doesn't comment and speculate with others about current news worthy items? Isn't that what this thread is about, 'In The News', not 'In The News, But Case Now Closed, So Safe To Comment'?!!No offence, and I know laws should be abided by, but I thought, that in Aus, we would be allowed a little 'free speech'?

[Debyork2]

I'm with you on this one Paddy-and it isn't a trial, it's an inquest, it's not as if anyone is going to be charged with anything(or highly unlikely to be anyway)so I can't see how any comments could be seen as prejudicial-even on the off chance someone connected with the case should happen to read them.

[Ravyk]

I am not sure that this should be discussed here.

This is a current inquest into a child's death and a finding has not been given.

Will check with Troy.

Souff

The fact it is currently in the news, I think it makes it fine to discuss, unless someone on DOL is involved and has asked Troy not to allow any discussion.