MASSACHUSETTS -- Surgeons at Brigham and Women’s Hospital were working yesterday to salvage and reconstruct what they could of a Bridgewater grandmother’s face after she was savagely mauled by her family’s 50-pound pit bull.
Normanda Torres, 71, was attacked about 11 a.m. at her family’s Bridgewater home and was flown to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Doctors called down to Bridgewater to ask that the dog be euthanized immediately, so that parts of Torres’ nose and lips could be removed from his stomach, Bridgewater police said. The recovered facial parts were transported by police cruiser to the hospital.
“It was just a tragedy,” said an audibly shaken woman who answered the phone yesterday at the Brian Street home and identified herself as Torres’ daughter. She declined further comment.
Torres had just moved in with her daughter three days ago, police said. She was standing at the kitchen sink at 11 a.m., when Rex, the family’s year-old tan-colored pit bull, lunged, giving her a “severe bite to the nose and mouth region,” police said.
“They were pretty serious injuries,” Lt. Thomas Schlatz said. There was no immediate information on the woman’s condition and whether surgeons had been able to reattach any of the recovered features to the woman’s face.
The dog had bitten strangers twice before in minor incidents that were never reported to police, family members told police.
The dog had been isolated in the bathroom by the time police arrived, and grandson Daniel Joseph, 20, helped animal control officers get it into a crate.
“Any time you introduce someone new into the dog’s territory, they will be territorial,” Bridgewater Health Agent Eric Badger said. “You have to be careful with certain breeds. You have to know how to train them.”
“It’s never a pretty a scene when you go into something like that,” Badger added.
(Boston Herald - Dec 2, 2011)
