A WOMAN spent six days in hospital after being savaged in her bedroom by a vicious cat.

Library assistant Helena Silver, 48, suffered a dozen bite wounds as the animal repeatedly sank its teeth into her hand.

Her arm was put in plaster and she was given an intravenous antibiotic drip amid fears she would develop blood poisoning.

Helena’s ordeal began when she was woken just after midnight by the noise of her own cat Gem being attacked in her bedroom by another ginger tom.

The rival had climbed into the ground floor room through a window Helena had left open because of the warm weather.

Helena said: “I pulled Gem away and the other cat just went for my right hand and sank its teeth in.

“It bit down so hard I screamed and then it did it two or three more times on my hand.

“I grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and pulled it off my hand and chucked it straight out of the window.

“There was blood all over the carpet and the curtains and I was in agony.”

Helena, of Avenue Road, Southampton, bathed her wound in boiled salty water and rang NHS Direct who advised her to go to hospital as a precaution.

She managed to drive herself to casualty at Southampton General where her wounds were dressed and she was given antibiotics and a tetanus vaccination.

Doctors warned her cat bites could be dangerous and told her to return in 48 hours.

Over the next two days Helena’s hand swelled to twice its normal size and she said she was in tremendous pain. She was immediately admitted to a ward when she went back.

She was put on an antibiotic drip and her right arm was immobiled in a raised position in an attempt to minimise the risk of any infection spreading.

Helena, whose cat Gem is 15 years old, was told doctors might have to operate to clean the deep wounds thoroughly.

She said: “When then told me I needed to be admitted for surgery I was horrified.

“I was supposed to be going away for the weekend two hours later – the hotel was booked and paid for.

“They told me I could go home if I wanted to but said there was a risk of septicaemia which could prove fatal.

“In the circumstances I wasn’t going to take any chances and I’m still here now waiting for the all-clear, although I’ve been told surgery is not needed now.”

Helena added that she had no idea what her feline attacker is called or who owns it.

“I don’t know whether he came in through my window looking for food or a fight but I wouldn’t like to meet him again,” she said.