Dog Bite Wounds: Medical before Legal Remedy

When an injury is sustained because of a dog bite, aside from a doctor, a lawyer should also be contacted. Because a doctor is only responsible on the treatment of the dog bite while a dog bite lawyer is responsible for the legal actions a plaintiff might subject the dog owner.

Dog bites are dangerous if it is not properly treated. Keep in mind that every year, 880,000 are being hospitalized because of a dog bite, and 15-20 people die because of this each year. So simple dog bites should not be taken for granted.

Here are some of the tips on how to treat a dog bite:

• Secure the dog and the victim. Move one away from the other and if the owner of the dog is around, try to instruct him to hold his dog, if he is not then secure the victim away from the dog.

• Practice universal precautions if you are not the victim.

• Try to control bleeding with appropriate procedures and, also, try not to use a tourniquet unless there is an uncontrollable bleeding, which cannot be controlled in any way.

• Clean the wound with soap and warm water once the bleeding is controlled. The soap should be rinsed all the way in order to not cause irritation later.

• The wound should be covered with a clean, dry cloth. Put an antibiotic ointment if you must before covering the wound. Watch for any signs of infection e.g. redness, swelling, heat, and weeping pus.

• Remember to call the physician to determine if you should be seen. There are some dog bites that are needed to be treated with antibiotics, especially if the wounds are deep. Many municipalities require a dog bite to be reported too.

• Unidentified dogs could run the risk of carrying rabies. If a dog cannot be identified or the owner cannot show any proof that the dog was vaccinated with anti-rabies, then the victim must receive proper medical treatments because rabies is fatal to humans if not treated immediately.

• Wounds that may need stitches should be seen by a physician because deep avulsions or lacerations might cause deep scarring and loss of function.

After all of these is done, a dog bite lawyer must be contacted so that the plaintiff must know what to do and that he could easily recover from the medical expenses by being paid in full compensation for the damages incurred to him by the defendant’s dog. Sources: