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BY DEBORAH LAVERTY
dlaverty@nwitimes.com
219.662.5324 | Saturday, October 21, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
MERRILLVILLE | The 7-year-old Merrillville boy viciously bitten several times by the family's pet Rottweiler remained in critical but stable condition Friday, a hospital spokeswoman and police said.
Bamba Niang, the son of Moussa Niang, was airlifted to the University of Chicago Hospital trauma unit after initially being taken Thursday to the Methodist Hospitals Southlake Campus, police said.
"He's on a ventilator, but the outlook is good," Merrillville Police Detective John Westmoreland said.
The boy was in critical condition with numerous bite wounds on his leg, thigh and head, police said.
Some of the wounds were so serious emergency responders "could see all the way to the bone," Police Chief Nicholas Bravos said.
Police have taken custody of the family's two Rottweilers, including the dog believed to have bitten the boy. The victim had been left home alone by a woman who identified herself as his stepmother, police said.
"The family had had the dogs for about a year," Westmoreland said.
He said the Rottweiler who bit the boy will be quarantined for 10 days to make sure it does not have rabies.
Police continue to investigate the circumstances of why the boy was left home alone with the dogs while his stepmother, who identified herself to police as Cathy Paxton, went to work at a nearby business, investigators said.
"We still want to talk to both the child and his parents," Westmoreland said.
The Times was unable to reach the boy's parents, despite phone calls and a visit to their duplex apartment in the 6900 block of Madison Street.
A large "Beware of Dog" sign was prominently posted in front of the apartment.
A next-door neighbor declined to comment about the incident.
Police credit neighbor Dawn McGill as the individual who heard the boy's screams from the dog attack.
Police said she ran to a nearby business, where the stepmother worked, after the neighbor was unable to get inside the locked apartment.
Paxton, after reaching her home and seeing the child, called police at 2:46 p.m., police said.
The 7-year-old is not enrolled at any Merrillville school, and the family recently moved to the area from Ohio, Bravos said.
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