Geoffrey Daley had to endure four hours on the operating table as doctors tried to repair tissue torn from his right arm during the attack in the early hours of Monday.
Surgeons had to take blood vessels from the 48-year-old’s leg to repair an artery damaged in his arm in the attack.
Mr Daley, who according to a family member lost five pints of blood in the aftermath of the attack, has also undergone skin grafts and will be scarred for life.
The dog, which is still alive and being kept in a kennel on Merseyside, had been subject to a police destruction order last January.
But Liverpool Magistrates’ Court ruled the animal, which is listed as a banned breed under the Dangerous Dogs Act, could return to its home in Herculaneum Road, Toxteth.
It was there the near fatal attack on Liverpool FC fan Mr Daley took place.
According to Mr Daley’s niece, who asked not to be named, he returned to the property, the house of a friend, in the early hours of Monday after attending the Chester Rocks festival.
The dog then set upon Mr Daley, of Netherton, in what was described as a 25 minute ordeal, where the dog just “went crazy” and would not let go of his arm.
Police were called and found the dog loose in the street and the victim lying in the front garden of a house.
Bleeding heavily Mr Daley was taken to the Royal Liverpool University hospital by ambulance.
The following day he was taken to Whiston Hospital in Prescot for specialist plastic surgery.
A 22-year-old man and 49-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of owning a dog dangerously out of control in a public place and were released on police bail pending further enquiries until September.
The ECHO has learned, however, that the two-and-a-half-year-old dog was first brought to the attention of Merseyside Police last January after a member of the public tipped officers off about their suspicions it was a banned breed.
An expert from the force’s Dangerous Dogs Unit examined the animal and it was taken away for more detailed scrutiny, where it was found to be a pit bull.
Officers applied to magistrates for a destruction order but failed.
Instead the magistrates said the dog could continue to live with the family as long as they agreed to adhere to the five conditions laid down as standard by courts who allow banned breeds to live.
The dog was microchipped, tattooed and castrated.
The court also ruled the animal must wear a muzzle when out in public and could not be walked by anyone under the age of 16.
The tragic consequences of owning a violent breed of dog have shattered lives on Merseyside.
In November 2009, four-year-old John Paul Massey was mauled to death in his grandmother’s Wavertree home by his uncle’s pit bull and in 2007 Ellie Lawrenson, five, died after being savaged by a pit bull.
In February pensioner David Morgan was left with a wounded arm after being attacked protecting a nine-year-old neighbour from a dog in Wavertree and in March a nine-year-old girl suffered facial injuries when a dog bit her in Runcorn.
How Echo Bite Back campaign led to danger dog laws
The ECHO launched Bite Back in 2006.
Just six months later five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson was tragically savaged to death.
She was killed by an illegal pit bull in St Helens in 2007.
In December 2009, John Paul Massey, four, died after he was mauled by a pit bull at his gran’s home in Wavertree.
Since then police have caught more than 500 people with banned breeds in Merseyside.
The ECHO never called for a blanket ban on any breed but asked for changes in the law – now all dogs must carry their name, breed, age and their owner’s address and telephone number.
(Liverpool Echo - July 8, 2011)
