Two boys in southern Vietnam are recovering from surgery after sustaining serious injuries in separate attacks by family dogs.

Doctors at the Children’s Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City announced on Thursday that they successfully carried out surgeries to save the lives of two child dog attack victims.

The first patient, a one-and-a-half-year-old boy from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, was hospitalized at 12:00 am on January 4.

According to the boy’s mother, she was doing the dishes after lunch when she heard cries coming from the front yard where her son had been left to play. 

She rushed outside to find that part of her son’s face had been mauled off by one of the family’s dogs. 

The boy was holding a stick that he had probably used to poke the German shepherd. 

German shepherds are popular in Vietnam due to their intelligence and strength, both traits which make them excellent guard dogs.

The mother immediately picked up the detached part of her son’s face and drove him to a local hospital where the flesh was cleaned and iced before the victim was transferred to the Children’s Hospital 1 in Ho Chi Minh City for emergency face replantation surgery.

Doctors called the 30-minute surgery success, though only time will tell if the child’s face will continue to develop properly.

The family of a boy who was mauled by a family-raised German shepherd in Dak Lak Province. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A second boy underwent surgery at the Children’s Hospital 1 last week following injuries sustained in a dog attack. 

The four-and-a-half-year-old boy from southern Dong Nai Pronvince was also mauled by a German shepherd while playing without adult supervision.

The boy had already stopped breathing by the time his father arrived at the scene.

The child was transferred to the Children’s Hospital 1 at 3:00 am on January 7 with symptoms which included the abnormal collection of air in the pleural space between the lungs and the chest wall, beneath his skin, and in his mediastinum.

Doctors found that the boy’s windpipe had been punctured by the dog.

An operation was carried out to close the opening, and the boy regained consciousness on Thursday.

According to both victims’ families, neither of the dogs responsible for the attacks had been immunized from infectious diseases.

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