XI'AN - With help from society, a migrant worker and his daughter were treated for injuries they suffered in a dog attack.

Tan Linwu, 37, a farmer from Liutang village in Shizhu county, Chongqing municipality, came eight years ago with his wife to Xianyang, Shaanxi province. Their daughter, Tan Yanyan, was born in 2009.

The family rented a 10-square-meter house in the city's Dongzhang village.

Around 8 am on Feb 10, a hybrid Tibetan mastiff raised by Tan attacked the little girl, seriously injuring her chin and left eye.

"I heard my daughter crying and quickly left the house," Tan said, who himself suffered injuries to his face, arms and belly during the attack.

"I was fighting hard against the dog and managed to get my daughter away from it."

He said the dog had been given to him by a boss at a factory where he had worked.

"It was only 3 months old, and I've raised it for three years," Tan said. "My daughter played with it nearly every day. It was very tame."

After the attack, Tan carried his daughter to a nearby clinic, where a doctor said her wounds were too serious for him and his colleagues to treat and advised him to take her to a large hospital

Tan and his daughter rode in an ambulance to a hospital in Xi'an, capital of the province, and the girl received there.

Afterward, Tan was told he would have to pay 30,000 yuan ($4,762) for further procedures that should be performed on the little girl's eye.

"I had no money and had to stand at the gate of the hospital with my daughter in my arms and ask for help," Tan said. "Many people who were passing by gave me money and I eventually collected 2,700 yuan. The money was not enough to pay for the treatment and I had to give up on getting further treatment for my daughter and go back home on Feb 11."

On the afternoon of Feb 11, Tan closed his dog in a room and called the police to ask them to deal with it. With Tan's agreement, officers came and killed the animal.

Tan had once tried to raise pigs to earn money. But since he knew little about farming technology, the 70 pigs he had died of diseases. He then tried working in a tile factory, making about 2,000 yuan a month in wages. His wife looked after their daughter and, to make money, picked up refuse.

"I was away from my village for years so I don't have rural cooperative medical insurance and I had no money to buy commercial health insurance," Tan said.

Tan's story, reported by local media, drew attention from Jiang Feng, the mayor of Xianyang.

He instructed the city's Human Resources and Social Security Bureau to help Tan, according to Li Jianhuai, deputy director of the bureau.

Bureau officials went to Tan's home on Wednesday and immediately sent the girl to the city's Caihong hospital for treatment.

"We gave the little girl proper treatment first and did not asked the family for payment," said Luo Xiaozhong, director of the hospital. "And our doctors and nurses gave 1,626 yuan in donations for the little girl on Friday."

By Friday, the poor family had received more than 60,000 yuan in donations, money that can be put toward treating her.

Xue Lili, the doctor in charge of the little girl's treatment, said Tan Yanyan is in a stable condition and that her injuries have been treated properly.

"The vision in her left eye will be normal and the girl will need plastic surgery 6 months later after she completely recovers from the injury," the doctor said.