Luckily for the 56-year-old, just as she had been dragged to the ground and one of the dogs went for her neck, her 37-year-old son Ben threw himself in front of the frenzied animals, taking their attention away from his mum.
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| Dog attack victims Ben McCully and his mother Vickie recall the horror of their Christmas Eve dog attack which left both hospitalised. Picture: Les Smith |
The result for Vickie was a Christmas spent in Canberra Hospital getting plastic surgery - muscles and nerves in her arms and legs needed to be repaired - and almost 1000 staples to put her back together.
For Ben, who spent a terrifying 15 minutes fighting the two dogs off, Christmas was spent in Wagga Base Hospital where he was sewn together with 200 stitches after needing treatment for lacerations so deep the bone was visible in some places.
"If it wasn't for my son, I would have been killed," Vickie predicts, with a quiver in her voice.
"I don't sleep, I keep having flashbacks. We've got to live with this now and try to get on with our lives, but it's not going to be easy.
“I’m in a lot of pain and I’m not the kind of person who normally just sits inside, I like to be able to go out and do things but at the moment I just can’t.”
Ben is a truck driver and has had to take all his holidays and sick leave so he can recover from his wounds and look after his ailing mother.
That gives him to the end of January, but while an enjoyable holiday had been planned, that time will now be consumed by pain at home in Wagga.
That’s frustrating for him, but his main feeling is relief that he still has a mum to look after.
Even so, it’s hard for him to think back to the morning of Christmas Eve.
“Mum was going to drop me off at my truck, which was parked at Barbeques Galore,” Ben recalls.
“She got to the gate and went to put a motorbike which we’ve got on sale out the front of the house, but as she was putting it on its stand two dogs came out of nowhere and started to maul her out the front.
“They dragged her around the back of the car and cornered her and started to get stuck into her.
“I was around the back, but I heard her screaming and thought the car must have rolled onto her foot or something so I came running out and there was blood everywhere and two massive dogs on top of her.”
As Ben fought the dogs off Vickie went back inside to get a knife, but her son had his hands full and he wasn’t able to use it.
“It’s a horrible thing watching your child put himself in so much danger,” Vickie said.
“I don’t know how he controlled the dogs but I’m just so thankful that we’re both still here.”
(Daily Advertiser - Jan 3, 2012)
