‘Your daughter has turned into a cat?’ –parents even had to hear such remarks

An ambulance speeds towards Dhaka from Kushtia. Inside, the parents are holding their five-year-old daughter tightly. Just moments earlier, the girl had been perfectly normal, but suddenly she started making meowing sounds like a cat and scratching her own face. Physicians suspected rabies, and terrified and distraught, the parents hired an ambulance for Tk 12,000 to rush her to Dhaka.

But on the way, the parents learned that a video of their ailing daughter at that moment had spread on social media platform Facebook. Then calls started coming from both acquaintances and strangers. Some asked, “Has your daughter apparently turned into a cat?” Some said the girl was acting. Others accused the parents of being view-mongers.

But the girl had not turned into a cat, nor had she contracted rabies. She had behaved that way unknowingly during a moment of illness. Doctors later said it was not an act. Although the child has recovered, her family has not been able to escape the few-minute video.

A visit to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital’s Mohakhali, on 25 August found that the parents had taken their daughter to the zoo. They could not contacted despite waiting for long. The next morning, 26 August, they were reached by phone. As soon as she answered the phone, the mother expressed her frustration to Prothom Alo, saying they were tired of saying everyone the same thing and did not want to talk anymore.

The incident began on 17 August. The girl’s father works at a private company in Kushtia. When he returned home from work that day, he found his five-year-old daughter behaving unusually.

When spoken to, she did not respond but made “meow, meow” sounds like a cat. She was scratching her own face. The girl had started behaving this way after returning from school in the afternoon. That night, despite the rain, her parents took her to the emergency department of Kushtia Sadar Hospital.

According to the girl’s father, a physician on duty there suspected rabies after observing the child’s behaviour, without conducting any tests. The doctor advised him to take her to Rajshahi or Dhaka.

Hearing that she might have rabies, the parents became terrified. The father rushed to arrange an ambulance. And that was when another incident occurred.

The child's father said that after he went to arrange an ambulance, several hospital employees went to the place where his daughter was sitting and started recording her on their mobile phones. The girl's mother repeatedly asked them not to record the video. But they did not stop. They reportedly said they were recording it to show senior officials.

The parents then left for Dhaka by ambulance with their daughter. While travelling from Kushtia to Dhaka, they learned that a video of their daughter had gone viral on Facebook.

Amid the fear of their child being sick, they realised that they would now have to face people's questions, curiosity and taunts about their daughter's illness. They have been traumatised ever since.

The child's mother said, “When my daughter was making cat-like sounds and scratching her own face, we were beside ourselves. How could we record a video of her at that time? And could it have even crossed our minds to make her video go viral? Yet people are saying that we are doing business for views. Many people are saying mean and nasty things about my daughter.”

The child is now healthy. But the family's ordeal has not ended because the video has spread.

The child's mother said, “My daughter is now well, but even after we informed people on Facebook, a new group of people started abusing us. They are saying that my daughter was acting.”

The mother wants the video of her daughter removed from social media. She said, “We want the video of my daughter behaving like a cat to be deleted from Facebook. And we want everyone to know that she is well. We do not want anyone to harass her anymore.”

The physicians concerned said that when animals such as dogs, foxes, cats, bats, mongooses and monkeys are infected with the virus that causes rabies and an infected animal bites a healthy person or livestock, that person or animal can also become infected. Once symptoms of this animal-borne viral disease appear, the chances of survival are almost nonexistent.

After the child began behaving unusually, she was taken to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mohakhali, Dhaka. Physicians there conducted tests and examinations and said that the child did not have rabies.

The child's father said that even after being brought to the hospital, his daughter was behaving somewhat unusually. The physicians exposed her to light and air in front of them to see whether she had any problems. They also checked whether she was afraid of seeing or drinking water.

After the tests and examinations, the doctors said that she did not have rabies. The child's father said the doctors told them that she would recover quickly with minimal treatment.

The father also said that the girl had behaved unusually for about a day and a half. She is now completely healthy. They took her to the zoo from the hospital to help keep her in good spirits.

Why did the girl behave this way?

Replying to this, the child's father said that their daughter had a Persian cat. The girl loved the cat very much. She would keep the cat with her even when sleeping.

The cat went missing from their home six or seven months ago. Since then, the girl had been quite gloomy. Her father said she watched a lot of cat videos on her mobile phone.

Physicians at the Infectious Diseases Hospital believe that a separate world centred around the cat had developed in the child's imagination. This may have been why the child behaved unusually. However, she did not do it deliberately or as an act.

ARM Sakhawat Hossain, a paediatrician and paediatric neurologist at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mohakhali, told Prothom Alo that even if a cat bites or scratches someone, it would not be expected to cause such behaviour.

Regarding the child who came from Kushtia, the doctor said he learned from the parents that the girl watched a lot of cat videos on her mobile phone. She may have liked a particular character. She then started making meow-like sounds.

In medical terms, this can be called a “functional disorder”. In such cases, something in a person's mind is expressed through physical behaviour. It could also be described as strange, imaginative behaviour, the physician said.

Paediatrician Sakhawat Hossain said that people may display various types of behaviour when they are under psychological stress for some reason. The child's behaviour cannot in any way be described as acting or an attempt to gain sympathy from others.

In his view, the viral spread of the child's video has led to misinformation and placed the child and her family in a vulnerable situation.

The child had asthma even before this incident. She is currently receiving treatment for asthma while staying at the hospital. Physician Sakhawat Hossain said she would be discharged from the hospital soon.

Physicians have emphasised keeping the child away from mobile phones and ensuring that she remains in good spirits so that she can return to normal life quickly.

Sakhawat Hossain said it would be clearly stated on the child's hospital discharge certificate that she did not have rabies. At the same time, an appeal would be made to ensure that the child is not harassed over the incident at school or elsewhere.

But what awaits them after returning home with their daughter has now become the parents' biggest concern.

The child's father said their ordeal had continued to grow since the video went viral. Their daughter is in the playgroup. He said the parents of a classmate who had eaten chocolate with his daughter had reportedly taken the child to a hospital as well to find out whether a rabies vaccine was necessary.

The father is also worried about what other children will say about his daughter when she returns to school and how teachers or parents will view her.

People were supposed to stand by the parents during their child's illness. But a video has instead brought curiosity, ridicule and humiliation into their lives.

The child's father said, “We are common people. We want no trouble. From taking our daughter to the hospital in Kushtia to collecting all the documents, including the prescription, we have kept everything. We only want our five-year-old daughter not to face any more neglect or harassment.”

Expressing anger at those who spread misleading information without knowing the facts, he also demanded a proper investigation into the incident.

The girl will to school again , with her schoolbag, water bottle, lunch box and favourite chocolate as usual. The child may once again share her chocolates with her friends. But her parents will no longer feel as reassured as before.

The illness that lasted only a day and a half is over. But a video lasting just a few minutes from that day-and-a-half of illness continues to haunt the family. The parents may now have only one prayer, that their five-year-old daughter gets to have a normal childhood and never again becomes the subject of a viral video.