Times News Network
 
Bangalore, Mar 2: Even before the city could recover from the brutal killing of eightyear-old Sridevi by stray dogs in Chandra Layout, a little boy was mauled by 15 dogs in BEML township on Wednesday.

Four-and-half-year-old Manjunath was playing hide-and-seek with his friends when the dogs attacked him, caught him in their jaws and dragged him across the open ground.

Within seconds, the murderous pack had almost severed his neck. The last words of this little boy were "neeru neeru (water water)".

Neighbours tried in vain to save him. In the next nine hours, Manjunath was pronounced dead after a team of surgeons battled and failed to save his life.

The surgeons tried to salvage what was left of the child's mutilated neck - windpipe, foodpipe and arteries - but failed.

He was brought to paediatric casualty of Manipal Hospital at about 8 pm and he had numerous lacerated injuries on the face, upper and lower limbs along with a massive tear in the wind pipe, which was split into two.

"This was causing him suffocation and profuse bleeding," said Dr Joseph Xavier, a cardio thoracic surgeon, who led the surgery.

A team of nine specialists including ENT, cardiac, vascular, neuro and plastic surgeons were rushed to handle the case. The operation started at 11 pm and continued till 3 am.

Since the child had lost a lot of blood, the doctors tried to control the bleeding by keeping him at a low temperature to stop the circulation for the time; an operation to control the bleeding was undertaken.

Also life support system to maintain his low blood pressure and the failing heart was provided. Recalling what happened minutes earlier, the child's father Maheshwara M C, an instructor at the welding training centre, BEML, said: "My son was calling me just a few minutes earlier to play with him,which I normally do. I told him I will have a bath first and then join him. But by the time I could have a bath some neighbours were screaming that dogs have bitten Manju. I rushed down from the first floor of our house. Manju was meanwhile taken to the nearby BEML hospital. The child was then rushed to Manipal Hospital and doctors emerged out of the operation theatre at about 3 am to tell us that the child is dead." Manjunath's mother Annapurna is too shattered to speak.

The incident has shaken the neighbourhood. Says a neighbour Lokesh N: "Manju was calling out to my daughter Spoorti who was one of his best friends to play with him. My daughter was asleep, otherwise it could have been my daughter."