JOHOR BARU: The road to recovery will be a long one for two-year-old Nur Haira Wafiqah Mohammad Hamizi, who was attacked by a pack of five dogs.
Johor Islamic affairs committee chairman Mohd Fared Mohd Khalid said the child’s recovery would involve substantial medical and rehabilitation costs, which the state government had committed to helping her family with.
“The child is in a coma in the intensive care unit,” Mohd Fared said after visiting her at Hospital Sultanah Aminah yesterday, adding that the Johor State Islamic Religious Council will bear all medical expenses to ease the family’s burden.
He urged the toddler’s parents and 12-year-old brother to seek hospital counselling, noting that the boy remains deeply traumatised after witnessing the attack and feeling guilty that he could not save his sister.
Mohd Fared added that the Batu Pahat Municipal Council is working urgently to capture the strays for rabies testing.
The victim’s mother, 36-year-old Nur Wahyuni Harun, said the family remains shaken by the incident, which occurred at her mother’s home in Kampung Tambak, Batu Pahat, at around 7am on Saturday.
“It was a nightmare, made worse by happening on my birthday,” she said.
“My eldest son cries at night because he keeps reliving the attack whenever he closes his eyes.”
Wahyuni was travelling from Batu Pahat to Johor Baru for a part-time job selling fritters at an event when her youngest child, who had been left in her grandmother’s care, had been attacked.
