Kim Turnbull, the girlfriend of Romeo Beckham, received a rabies injection after being bitten by a dog while on a beach. She documented the incident and her subsequent treatment on her Instagram account.
Dog bite on the beach
In her first post, Turnbull shared a video of the dog that attacked her, along with a view of where the dog had bitten her on the leg. Speaking over the video, she said: "I just fed this stray dog and [the food] was blowing away from him and I went to fix it, but I guess he thought I was taking it back and he bit me."
She added in written text: "Best believe I went back and fed him a second time after he bit me. Now he's back. Is he apologising right now or does he want more food?"
Rabies concerns and treatment
The model later returned to Instagram to share a screenshot of the information she received from Google after typing in: "If a stray dog bit me but the cut is literally a spec it's so tiny can I get rabies?" The results indicated she could still contract rabies, as transmission only requires infected saliva to enter the tissue.
Rabies is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain and central nervous system, often passed on through a bite or scratch from an infected animal. Symptoms include numbness, hallucinations, anxiety, difficulty breathing and paralysis. Once symptoms appear, rabies is often fatal.
Following her online research, Turnbull went to a beachside medical centre to receive a rabies shot. She wrote on Instagram: "The most on brand move I could have pulled (Rabies jab is on the way for all friends messaging concerned)".
Medical advice and recent travels
Doctors recommend seeking treatment if bitten, scratched or licked by an animal that may have rabies. Treatment usually involves two or more doses of the rabies vaccine, which may also be offered to those travelling to areas where quick medical help is hard to access. It can also involve rabies immunoglobulin, injected if the person has not had the rabies vaccine before or has a weakened immune system. However, rabies cannot be treated once symptoms appear.
Turnbull and Romeo have been in Singapore together, where they attended the F1 Grand Prix. The pair also recently travelled to Paris to support Romeo's mother Victoria at her fashion show. While Romeo, Kim and other members of the Beckham family—David, Harper, Cruz, and his girlfriend Jackie Apostel—rallied around the former Spice Girl, eldest child Brooklyn was also in the French capital, but not near his mother's show.
Sources told The Mirror that the couple's decision to visit the capital at this time is "cruel". "For a couple who have made clear they want distance from the Beckham family machine, Brooklyn and Nicola could hardly have chosen a more conspicuous week to be in Paris," they said. "It feels bordering on cruel to be swanning around the city knowing how important this day is for Victoria."
