FLORIDA -- A 13-year-old girl will not need reconstructive surgery after a pet pit bull attacked her this week, her grandmother said Thursday.
The outcome could have been much worse, said those who witnessed the attack on Monday.
“She’s doing very good. It wasn’t a brutal mauling,” said Gwendolyn Mc-Keithen, 61, of Deerfield Beach. “We believe in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is answering our prayers.”
She was among relatives maintaining a vigil at the hospital where Tayla Johnson is recovering. The eighth-grader at Deerfield Beach Middle School is beautiful, smart and an avid churchgoer, Mc-Keithen said.
Her grandmother did not know the exact number of stitches Tayla received, but said, “she doesn’t have very many.”
The black-and-white pit bull, “MJ,” was large, possibly weighing more than 100 pounds, neighbors said. Several weeks ago, a visiting relative brought the dog into the family home in the 1200 block of Southwest 10th Terrace, Mc-Keithen said.
The dog showed no signs of aggression, Mc-Keithen said, until Monday night, when it attacked Tayla. Exactly what triggered MJ to bite her arms and face is a mystery, the grandmother said.
At the hospital, Tayla has not said anything about the incident, Mc-Keithen said.
According to a Broward Sheriff’s Office report, Tayla told deputies she was trying to put the dog in the bathroom when it began “acting strange” and attacked. Tayla, who was home alone, said she was unable to push the dog away, the report said.
When her teenage brother and cousin got home, they tried unsuccessfully to free her from the dog’s powerful jaws.
Sammie Huggins, 34, whose parents live next door, and another adult neighbor beat the dog with aluminum and wooden bats. Huggins’ friend Paul Rollins, 34, was also there to help.
The dog released Tayla only after a third neighbor shot it repeatedly.
The dog died. Before it died, the dog tried to attack again, but Rollins slammed a bedroom door to keep it away as everyone hurriedly left the house.
No bullets struck Tayla, but Huggins recalled how she appeared seriously injured.
“She lost a lot of blood. You could see she had bite marks all over her,” he said Thursday.
The fact that the girl endured the dog attack for some time before help arrived was upsetting, Huggins said. “But she did a good job to hold on,” he said.
“We’re just glad we were around to help. Once you see something like that, you overcome it, and have to do what’s right.”
(Miami Herald - Oct 6, 2011)
