Just a scratch, they thought, but it killed the boy

An event brushed off as a simple accident one-anda-half months ago led to the death this week of 12-year-old schoolboy, Kahawe Guruge Gawesh.

Gawesh, who lived in Gorakagasduwa, Maplagama, near Galle, was cycling to his tuition class when a dog jumped out at a girl who had been with him. She fell against Gawesh’s bicycle, throwing him off-balance, and in the commotion the boy was scratched by the dog.

Gawesh’s sister, Waruni, said her brother had told her two days later that he had been scratched by a dog on his way to tuition class but she had not considered it a serious matter.

“My brother complained of leg and back pain on Saturday, September 26, so we took him to Udugama Hospital. He was transferred to Karapitiya Hospital the following day,” Ms Guruge said. The boy died the following day.

“I was with my brother in hospital,” Ms Guruge said. “He was shivering and was having difficulty breathing. Later, he was unable to drink water.

“I explained the situation to the doctors and explained the incident, and they put him in a separate area and gave him treatment.

“My brother's condition became worse. He told me that the pain was like being killed.

“Then he said he was dying. He asked me not to cry.”

Gawesh’s mother, Chithra Nandani Guruge, 48, said the family had not thought the dog scratch to be a serious matter.

Samples of tissue from the boy’s body have been sent for analysis so that the cause of death can be formally established. The Inquirer into Sudden Deaths R.M. Nazim, ordered the body to be released to the family with instructions that the coffin be sealed.