What Is Paraplegia? Differently-Abled French Girl Mutilated By Rats While In Bed

A 14-year-old French paraplegic girl was hospitalized and is in critical condition after she was reportedly attacked by a swarm of rats in while she was sleeping, that left more than 200 wounds including scratches and bites on her body, reports said Friday.

The teen, identified only as Samantha by media outlets, was discovered covered in blood by her father after he woke up on last Saturday morning, Sept. 2, 2017, in their rented house in Roubaix in northern France near the Belgian border, according to reports.

Her father told the Independent that Samantha had been sleeping in a medical bed on the first floor of the family’s residence while others slept upstairs. On Saturday, the girl’s father found her in a "pool of blood."

"There was blood coming from her ears — I was terrified that she might have had a brain hemorrhage," her father was quoted as saying, according to the Independent. He added she was "drenched in blood."

"She cannot get out of bed. Because of her condition, she is less sensitive to pain than we are.

"She must have felt the rats on her but did not have the presence of mind to call us," her father said.

The 14-year-old girl has a condition called paraplegia which is "described as the inability to voluntarily move the lower parts of the body. The areas of impaired mobility usually include the toes, feet, legs, and may or may not include the abdomen," according to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Paraplegia mostly occurs as a result of a spinal cord injury caused due to an accident or any other trauma- most common accidents among them include motor vehicle accidents and falls.

Paraplegia can be further categorized into two types- complete or incomplete. Complete paraplegia would refer to absolute damage to the region of the spinal cord thus leading the individual to lose total sensory and motor functions. While incomplete paraplegia defines partial damage to the spinal chord. For example, an individual with incomplete paraplegia might have some sensory function but no movement, or vice versa, according to News-medical.net.

Spinal chord injuries are not always apparent immediately and thus paralysis can be delayed, so it is important to get medical attention as soon as possible, as the time frame also decides the amount of damage caused and thus how long it will take to recover.

The girl was immediately transported to a local hospital after her father found her. Several tests were conducted on her and the test for rabies came back negative, the father said, however, some of Samantha’s fingertips were chewed off by the rats so badly that surgeons said they will not be able to repair them, BBC News reported.

After the incident, the family has since been moved from its home and the father said he will sue the landlord.

The 14-year-old girl suffered 30 wounds on her feet and 45 to her face, a medical expert told France Info. She also was said to have suffered 150 lesions on her hands and her fingertips were badly bitten off. Police have been investigating the attack in order to find a reason, as rats generally attack dead things, however, according to reports, the father complained of rubbish bins being left overflowing nearby their residence.