Vet who saved Megan’s smile dies, aged 93

WHEN a 100lb dog lunged at Arbroath toddler Megan Macfarlane, tearing open her face, mum Julie feared the worst.

But thanks to the actions of quick-thinking Angus vet John Kneen, the three-year-old’s lip was recovered from the stomach of the mastiff.

Now, 25 years on, and in the wake of Mr Kneen’s death aged 93, both mum and daughter paid tribute to the man who gave Megan her smile back.

“I had a brilliant surgeon, and the ambulance rushed me to Dundee but if Mr Kneen hadn’t found my lip – and been so quick to get it to the police – I don’t know how things would have worked out.

“I’m incredibly grateful,” said Megan, who is now a dog walker and groomer.

“Hearing of his passing, and being able to pay tribute to him is humbling.

“I have a wonderful life and his actions have helped me.”

Megan had been visiting the ice cream van in July 1997 when a bull mastiff belonging to a neighbour jumped towards her ice cream.

At the time Mr Kneen said: “Police searched the area and found nothing. The only place the lip could be was inside the dog. So once the dog was put down, I removed its stomach and began to search for the piece of lip.

‘’It was very dirty in the stomach but I didn’t clean the piece of lip properly because that might have removed some of the tissue. So I put the lip in a mixture of saline and ice and it was rushed to hospital by the police.”

Consultant plastic surgeon Anas Naasan carried out Megan’s surgery at Dundee Royal Infirmary – the first of its kind, using tissue recovered from the stomach of an animal.

Megan Macfarlane