An elderly woman is in hospital after being "savagely" attacked by a rat while she was sleeping.
Diana Kirk was found horrifically injured at 5.45am on the morning of May 9 at her home in Ridgewood Road in Bingham.
The 76-year-old has brain damage and sleeps downstairs in a hospital bed, Nottinghamshire Live reports.
She is cared for by her 85-year-old husband John Kirk, as well as a care team who visit their house to help.
Mr Kirk recalls how he was asleep upstairs when he heard a rat "scratching around" by his feet.
He said he could not see it well, considering how dark it was, but that it was definitely a large rodent.
At about 1.30am, he noticed it again, but then he fell asleep and woke up as normal before 6am.
He went downstairs to check on his wife in their living room and saw what had happened to Diana before calling the ambulance straight away.
It arrived at about 8:20am, and pictures have been shared with Mr Kirk's permission, revealing the extent of his wife's horrific injuries.
He said "I've never seen anything like the injuries she had - you can see how bad they were from the pictures.
"It was absolutely savage. I went and knocked on the door of the young girl over the road as she is also always up early and so she helped. They took Diana to the Queen's Medical Centre and she came back on Thursday night.
"There were scratches on her face, her neck, her hands - it had tried to gnaw right through to the bone from the looks of it. There was blood everywhere."
The following morning, a neighbour set up a trap in the house, and Mr Kirk said the rat was caught and trapped in a cage.
As he moved it to the patio, Mr Kirk said the rat attempted to bite him several times - but then the neighbour managed to kill the rat, shooting it four times with a pellet gun before it died.
Mr Kirk said: "Because of her condition, my wife can't move. I have since read that rats only ever go for young babies and people who are immobile in bed like my wife. She can't feel pain so she would not have known much about what happened. I would like people to know what can happen and to be aware of it. I found out a couple of days after it happened that it was making a nest in the house."
Helen Speed is the Care Manager at Home Instead East Notts and Melton Mowbray which provides care to Mr and Mrs Kirk at their home.
She said: "A few weeks ago another one of our care givers was in Bingham and heard some squealing - there was a rat inside a client's dustbin.
"I think it must be an ongoing issue and one that I think people living nearby need to be aware of - especially if they are vulnerable."
