Mum left in intensive care after vicious attack by neighbour’s CAT while she looked after him
Cat-lover Cat-lover Fatima El-Tawi, 59, suffered a serious blood infection when the rag doll lashed out at her
A CAT-LOVING mum was left fearing she needed her hand amputated after she was attacked by her neighbour's moggie.
Fatima El-Tawil had kindly offered to look after her neighbour's pet rag doll - but ended up in intensive care after the feline scratched and bit her hand.
The 59-year-old was forced to go out looking for the nine-month-old cat when he ran away from her home as she looked after him.
She found the pet a few yards from her home - but was stunned when the cat lashed out, biting and scratching her hand.
Fatima, from Purley, Surrey, told The Sun Online: "I found him in the woods close to my house and tried to take him home because he's a house cat and doesn't know his way back.
"I stroked him, he was fine, I tickled his chin and then I picked him up - but he bit me and stuck his claws into my hand.
"His teeth and claws were wedged in my hand and he wouldn't let go - I tried to take his claws off and he bit me again."
Fatima felt too guilty to leave the cat, for fear he would "run away and get killed by a car" and so bravely picked him up and endured the painful clawing as she walked back to her house.
She said the few yards to her home seemed like "a thousand miles" and terrified Fatima fell unconscious as soon as she stepped in her door.
The cat-lover was rushed to hospital by her concerned neighbour and given antibiotics to lessen the inflammation.
Fatima said: "I was in a lot of pain, at the beginning my hand was so swollen up to my elbow and I had no feeling in it at all."
Shockingly Fatima, who has two cats of her own, said this was not the first time her neighbour's pet attacked her.
She already had a tiny cut on her other hand from a bite three days before the attack, which also became inflamed.
The mum-of-one said: "The cat is nine-months-old and I've spent a lot of time with him but over the past few weeks he's been acting strange."
Fatima returned to her GP on Monday - three days after the attack - when the swelling on her hand continued to get worse.
She said: "It wasn't normal at all. My fingers banged and I lost feeling of my hand completely.
"I couldn't even hold a bowl because my fingers were so cramped together, I couldn't open them at all.
"Nobody could touch it, it was too painful - I couldn't even open my fingers up. I'm a size 10 but my hand was like a size 25."
Fatima's GP could not believe so much damage had been caused from a cat bite and said it looked more like a dog attack.
He sent her back to Croydon University Hospital urgently, where she had blood tests that revealed she had a dangerous infection.
Fatima was placed in intensive care and put on an antibiotic drip, which she has been on ever since.
Tearfully she explained she feared she would lose her hand when doctors told her there was nothing they could do but wait for the drip to work.
She said: "I was so scared they would cut my hand off because I have a sister who lost her hand in an accident and I was just so scared it would happen to me."
Thankfully Fatima says the swelling appears to be slowly going down and she is now able to slightly open her fingers.
She said: "Every day I tell them I want to leave. I hate the hospital, it's cold, it's horrible - I just want to go home."
The experience has made Fatima nervous to be around cats she doesn't know, and she now "wouldn't dare to hold anyone's other than [her] own".
She said: "I'm in pain, I'm in shock - it's just my luck really, I love cats and I've paid the price."
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368