A TINY SAVIOR
Boy in hosp, saved siblings from pit bull
A 5-YEAR-OLD boy attacked by a pit bull inside his Brooklyn apartment jumped in front of the vicious dog to save his younger siblings, relatives said Saturday.
“He was protecting his little brother and sister so he took the brunt,” Jeremiah Rivera’s uncle Michael Pride said at the family’s East New York home.
“(The dog) would have attacked all three,” Pride said. “The dogs are not going to stop at just one. I’m sure that was a split-second decision (but) there’s no thinking about it — he sprung into action.”
Jeremiah was recovering from deep bites to his face and body at Long Island Jewish Hospital. The usually wide-eyed child’s face is severely swollen — to four times its normal size, his uncle said.
“I just hope that he can look halfway the way he used to,” Pride added. “They don’t really know about his eyes because of the swelling.”
Relatives were taking turns sitting by the little hero’s side as he recovered — keeping a roundthe-clock vigil, he said.
“(The parents) are devastated,” Pride said. “It’s not easy seeing their baby like that.”
Doctors gave the child two pints of blood as they treated his wounds.
“He’s doing better than yesterday,” Pride said. “He’s not awake . . . he’s on a ventilator because they want the swelling to go down. They don’t want him to move around.”
“He’s going to have a little journey ahead of him, but I’m sure he's going to recover,” Pride said.
The child’s 34-year-old mom, who wished not to be named, was overjoyed that her son was on the mend.
“He’s stable ... he’s not in danger, he’s good,” she said. “I’m better knowing that he’s OK. It’s unimaginable.”
Jeremiah, his 3-year-old brother and 1-year-old sister were playing inside their first floor home on Riverdale Ave. near Georgia Ave. about 6:45 p.m. Friday when two pit bulls — described as “rescue dogs” — got loose from their cages.
“He knew they weren’t supposed to be out,” Pride said about the dogs. “Maybe he was trying to put them back in.”
One of the two canines attacked Jeremiah, officials said. His father, who was alone in the home with the children, pulled the animal off the boy before running outside and screaming for help.
Neighbors said Friday that the child’s wounds were so severe it looked like the left side of his face “was gone.”
Paramedics rushed the boy to Brookdale University Hospital. He was later transferred to Long Island Jewish Hospital.
The family had gotten the two pit bulls about a week before the attack, neighbors said.
Even though the animals had only been on the block for a short time, neighbors knew to steer clear.
“When you do see (them), you definitely have to walk across the street,” said Diane Batista, a 41-year-old mother of three who lives two blocks away from Jeremiah’s home. “They’re two vicious dogs. They’d be ready to attack you.”
Animal Care and Control took custody of both dogs and moved them to a site in Manhattan, where they will undergo a 10-day rabies observation before further steps are taken.