A Cat Bite

Erin came into my office the other week with a skittish smile on her face. “There’s a dude in Desalegn’s room who was bit by a lion,” she said. She had seen the patient and knew he wasn’t severely injured, hence her nonchalant demeanor. I hurriedly made my way to Desalegn’s exam room. The 40-year-old man had a hardened face and muscular build. He looked…tough. He showed us the wound—the teeth from the animal had made their mark in several areas surrounding his shoulder. I scratched my head, puzzled as to why the lion didn’t just tear off his arm completely. Desalegn translated as I asked the man more about the animal. It was a big wild cat, he said. Desalegn then corrected the man’s previous claim. “It wasn’t a lion, it was a tiger,” he suddenly pronounced. Sometimes my common sense runs a little thin, but even I knew that there are no tigers in Africa. We disputed this claim for a few minutes before realizing that Desalegn didn’t have the proper English to explain that the animal the man described is known to us as a leopard. Apparently, it was attacking some of the villagers’ sheep and several men were trying to hit it with sticks when it lunged at them, leaving its mark, and quickly running off. We had finally narrowed down our differential diagnosis. It wasn’t a lion bite, nor that of a tiger. This man was bit by a leopard. A kind, gentle leopard.