Brave girl’s 3-hour op after mauling by dog
A THREE-year-old girl needed hours of surgery after she was savaged by a dog.
Elouise Smith was attacked by a Staffordshire bull terrier-cross on a play date at a friend’s house.
Mum Stacey Louise Murray, 33, said she was sickened when she picked up Elouise and saw she was covered in blood with wounds down to the bone.
She said: “Apparently the dog bit her once, let go, then it sat next to her and she was sat next to the dog trying to calm it down. She was crying when I got to the house and her face was wrapped up in a white towel.
“As I put my hands out to get her and the towel dropped revealing her injuries it made me feel sick, but I couldn’t have shown any emotion as it would have made her feel worse. It makes you feel awful as a mum because I wasn’t there.”
The youngster, of Doncaster, South Yorks, was taken to nearby Rotherham Hospital where she had three hours of surgery earlier this month. Stacey said: “She had a bite to the bottom of her right cheek that went through to her jaw and then she had a cut in the corner of her eye that needed to be stitched.”
Elouise also had another cut and a “gash” on her cheekbone, both of which had to be stitched.
Stacey, a senior care assistant for charity Lifeline Against the Breadline, continued: “She said when we were in the hospital, ‘It’s my fault, I’m sorry’.” I said, ‘It’s not your fault’ and she was blaming herself. That was heartbreaking.” Although angry initially, Stacey remains friends with the dog owners. The animal was destroyed.
She said: “They’re feeling it as well. I couldn’t imagine having to ring someone to tell them their dog bit their child.”
Stacey described little Elouise as a “trouper” and said she is not worried about potential scarring as “it’s her own story to tell”.
A police spokesman said inquiries have concluded and no arrests were made.