UNITED KINGDOM -- A woman savaged by a dog has undergone agonising skin grafts to repair her badly mauled arm.
Stockton mum-of-two Michelle Mahoney still can’t sleep through the night without suffering nightmares about last month’s attack.
Stockton mum-of-two Michelle Mahoney still can’t sleep through the night without suffering nightmares about last month’s attack.
As reported, the 42-year-old was walking past a couple in central Stockton when she said one of their dogs – a pit bull or a staffy – suddenly leapt at her arm.
Michelle said she was only freed from the animals’ jaws after it had taken a large chunk of her flesh down to the bone.
“It was horrific - I was yelling ‘Get it off! Get it off!’” she said afterwards. “It seemed like it was hanging on forever.”
She spent a week in Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital, and has now had a major skin graft using tissue from her leg.
Her concerned mum, Ann Hope, of Norton, said Michelle is still suffering in great pain, even after the skin graft.
“The bedding we have been through with the blood – and the smell of the wound is terrible,” she said.
“My nerves are shattered, and Michelle has never stopped talking about it.
“She said she can still see the dog hanging off her arm. She’s still getting up through the night – she still can’t sleep.”
Michelle, mum to a four-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, was given morphine to reduce the pain, and was treated for any possible infection before plastic surgeons could even consider carrying out skin grafts.
She said she was told by nurses on her ward it was one of the worst dog bites they had ever seen.
She told the Gazette that even after the skin graft surgery she was “in a horrific way for four days with the pain”.
“I’m still in a lot of pain, I couldn’t put my arm down,” said Michelle.
“My fingers and hands are all swollen, and the wound absolutely stinks.”
Michelle is now on antibiotics to reduce any infection in the wound, and needs her bandages changed daily.
Cleveland Police have arrested a 30-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man in connection with the incident on Monday July 25. Both have been bailed.
(Gazette Live - August 17, 2011)
