A man who suffered from diabetes and poor blood clotting has died after he was scratched by his beloved cat which caused him to bleed out.
The scratches on 55-year-old Dmitry Ukhin’s leg were reportedly so severe that he died of blood loss.
The incident took place in the Kirishi district of the Leningrad region, in Russia, when Dmitry went to look for his cat on Friday afternoon, on November 22, after it ran away from home two days earlier.
Ukhin reportedly found the pet on the street and brought it home.
But that evening, the feline badly scratched Dmitry’s leg.
The cat’s owner suffered from diabetes and poor blood clotting, apparently caused by high blood pressure.
Dmitry’s wife was away, so he called his neighbour and told him he was dying. He could not stop the bleeding and called the medics.
A police source reportedly told local media: ‘Around 11 pm, a man called 112 to report that his friend was bleeding from his leg due to a torn vein.
‘The doctors who arrived only confirmed the man’s death, which the police received a telephone message about.’
According to the unnamed neighbour who provided first aid to the man, the medical team took a long time to arrive.
Dmitry’s wife confirmed this information to local media.
The woman, named as Natalya, said that the cat, called Styopka, liked to walk by itself, was kind and was harmless. Its fate is currently unclear.
The cause of death is yet to be confirmed by forensic experts.