Brave Jade Wilson, 14, needed 56 stitches after the dog pounced as she opened the door of her close.
The dog clamped its powerful jaws around her lower face and kept a grip on her until she managed to beat it off.
An inch lower and the dog would have clamped its teeth on her jaws, almost certainly leaving her dead or seriously injured.
Jade has been left with scarring on her face – but has bravely agreed to be photographed so lessons can be learned from her experience.
She said: “I want to make people aware of what dogs can do If you know your dog bites then it should have a muzzle on and be kept on a short lead.
“If it was a fraction lower it could have caught my throat and killed me. If it was a fraction higher it could have taken my nose off.”
Jade was playing on Monday night in the Acre Road block in Summerston, Glasgow, where she lives when she challenged a young friend to a scooter race.
They were to start from different entrances to the flats but as she opened the front door the dog attacked.
Jade recalled: “It came from nowhere and latched on to my face. It happened so quick I didn’t have time to put my arm up. I froze and the dog, which was up on its back legs, held on for a few seconds.
“The first thing I thought was ‘I’m going to die’. I kicked the dog off me and ran out to get help and everyone was scared because they saw the blood.
“Someone gave me a towel to put over my face to stop the blood. Bits of my lip and gum were on the towel. I asked people how bad it was but they did not want to scare me by telling me. After a few minutes I heard sirens and the next thing paramedics were helping me.”
Mum Georgina, 33, was about to give her five-year-old daughter, Eve, a bath when she heard Jade’s screams.
She said: “I ran down the stairs and saw Jade with a towel at her face. I was angry and upset but I had to try not to panic for Jade. I have not really slept all week as I just keep thinking: ‘What if?’
Jade was rushed to the city’s Western Infirmary, where she was given painkillers and a tetanus jag.
Staff initially told Jade she would require plastic surgery and she was transferred to the Southern General.
Georgina said: “The surgeon there was amazing. He was optimistic that the scarring will not be that bad but we will need to wait and see. The paramedics were also fantastic and one told her she had lips like Mick Jagger to boost her spirits.”
Keen dancer Jade had eight injections to cope with the pain. She said: “All I could feel was a soreness in the inside of my mouth. I couldn’t speak because of the swelling. Two of my teeth got chipped and the dog’s teeth pierced my skin and hit my gum. It took two bits of my lip away with it.”
Jade was given a mixture of dissolving and traditional stitches and released from hospital at 5.30am on Tuesday.
Asked how she felt when she first looked in the mirror, Jade said: “Horrible. I thought ‘I’m never going out in public again’.”
But her recovery has been nothing short of inspirational.
Jade said: “I left the house for the first time on Thursday and I had a scarf over my face. It was too warm so I had to take it off. As I walked along the street I thought ‘This scar is going to be there but it says that I survived a dog attack’, and not many people survive a dog attack.”
The teenager also believes the dog that attacked her should be put down. Jade said: “If it can bite once then it can bite again.”
It is understood the dog was on a lead but its owner was unable to stop it lunging.
Police Scotland confirmed a 21-year-old man has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with the incident.
The dog is being held by the police and its fate now rests with the fiscal.
Jade has made good progress in the days since the attack and hopes to get her stitches out on Monday.
She plans to return to John Paul Academy, Summerston, to start her third year within the next fortnight. Her ambition is to become an architect.
(Daily Mirror - Aug 18 2013)
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