Schoolgirl, 5, is savaged by dog
ALSATIAN ‘CHEWED ARM LIKE IT WAS A PIECE OF MEAT’ SAYS STEPDAD
A LITTLE girl has been badly savaged in a dog attack.
Ellie Whelan, aged five, needed three-and-a-half hours of surgery at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
She suffered horrific injuries to her right arm after being bitten by an Alsatian near her home in Bury.
Her stepfather, William McIntyre, 24, said: “She went to a friend’s house to play. As the door of their house was opened the dog grabbed her on the shoulder in the hallway.
“Luckily she has turned away. If the dog had bitten her in the face she could have been killed.
“The dog has bitten her about three times, dragging her down. It has chewed up her right arm as if it was a piece of meat.
“The injuries to her arm were terrible. Before she went in for the operation the surgeon warned us she might not have proper use of her arm again, but surgery went well.”
The attack on Ellie, near her home in Canterbury Drive, ended when an adult in the house pulled the Alsatian off her.
William said: “Two neighbours, Jason Williams and Gwen Clayton, jumped over the garden fence to help. They put towels on her to stop the bleeding and Jason kept speaking to her as she was going in and out of consciousness. They both did a brilliant job.
“Ellie’s mum, Natalie, heard screaming and the dog barking. When she saw Ellie she had blood on her face and she at first thought she had just had a fall - then she saw her arm and it was so bad she collapsed in shock.
“Ellie is recovering and we just realise how lucky she has been. It could have been far worse. The surgeon told us she had been very lucky. She is small and the dog was trying to drag her into the house. She just had a summer top on so her arms had no protection. She will have a scar for life. As well as the injuries to her arm and shoulder her tongue was split too.
Ellie, a keen dancer, and pupil at Woodbank Primary remains in hospital.
William said: “She keeps having nightmares, waking up and screaming. She is still petrified.”