Woman attacked by rat: disabled pensioner left with ‘horrific injuries’ after attack - what happened to her?

A disabled pensioner was left with “horrific injuries” after a rat savagely attacked her while she was asleep.

Diana Kirk, 76, who is unable to feel pain, was left bloodied with her face and neck both covered in claw and bite marks.

Her eyelids, fingers and elbow had also been gnawed by the rodent.

The animal had been nesting in Diana and her husband John’s home in Bingham, Nottinghamshire before the attack in the early hours of May 9.

The rat, which was around nine inches long, was caught in a trap laid by a neighbour the next morning and then shot dead with a pellet gun.

Diana, a retired John Lewis shop worker, fell down the stairs six years ago which left her brain damaged and unable to feel pain.

She also suffers from a catalogue of health problems including dementia and Parkinson’s disease.

What happened to the woman attacked by a rat?

Diana sleeps downstairs in the couple’s semi-detached home due to her health problems.

Husband John Kirk, 85, said he heard scratching sounds coming from the living room the night before Diana was attacked.

He said: “We had a rat in the house before Christmas which the council came and got rid of and I’d thought that was that.

“I’d put seeds and peanuts out for the birds in the garden and kept bags of bird food in the sideboard in the living room.

“The rat must have sneaked into the kitchen and set up a nest in the sideboard because the bags of food were all chewed through.

“The night Diana was attacked I’d gone to bed about 10.20pm and had heard scratching behind the TV but didn’t think too much about it.

“At about 1.30am in the morning I noticed something brush past my bed but fell back to sleep.

“When I came downstairs at 6am the next morning to make Diana a tea, that’s when I saw her covered in blood.

“It was like a scene from Rambo. Absolutely horrific. She was just shaking with her hands by her neck staring up at me.”

John called an ambulance and Diana was rushed to the Queen’s Medical Centre in

Nottingham.

She was cleaned up there and given a powerful course of antibiotics.

John added: “The only saving grace is that Diana didn’t know too much about it.

“She can’t feel pain because of her brain damage.”

What injuries did the pensioner suffer?

Retired tank driver John, who has been married to Diana for 36 years, said that the rat gnawed at her face, neck and eyelids.

He said: “Diana’s injuries were horrific… at first I thought Diana had been shot.

“There was blood everywhere. The rat had tried to eat her to get to her blood. There

were bite marks on her cheek and her lips.

“Diana’s fingers and elbow were badly chewed as well.”

Why did the rat attack the pensioner?

John, who served in the 6th Tank Regiment and saw action in North Africa in the late 1950s, said: “Diana had obviously been attacked in the night because the blood had congealed and had gone black.

"I’ve read since that rats only ever go for babies and people who are immobile in bed like my wife.

"I think people need to know the risks about rats and be wary about putting food out for the birds because it obviously got attracted by the seeds and nuts and thought our house would make a good place for a nest."