Dog attack toddler left with 240 stitches after terrifying Staffordshire bull terrier struck

Mayzee Jo Gaspa, 18 months, was pounced in her own home and dragged her around the floor while her frantic mum tried to free her from its jaws

UNITED KINGDOM -- Drenched in blood, this is the face of toddler Mayzee Jo Gaspa after a terrifying dog attack.

The 18-month-old was pounced on by a Staffordshire bull terrier in her own home and dragged her around the floor while her frantic mum tried to free her from its jaws.

Little Mayzee Jo Gaspa inhaled four of her own teeth in the terrifying attack.

 

She needed 240 stitches and surgery to save her nose.

Mum Maria Dew, 34, released the shocking image as a warning to other parents and said: “Looking at her after it let go, I thought she was going to die.”

Maria told how the ­powerful Staffordshire bull terrier struck as she chatted to a ­neighbour who brought it into her home.

She said: “The dog just turned out of the blue. Mayzee Jo was just in our kitchen standing by my leg. It just bit her and was dragging her round like a rag doll.

“I just kept hitting it in the mouth – it felt like a lifetime before I could get it off her but it was probably a couple of minutes. It was ­horrendous. She was screaming and there was blood everywhere.”

Dozens of residents at their block of flats in Archway, north London, overheard the commotion and described coming rushing to "a scene from a horror film".

Mayzee Jo's seven-year-old brother was playing outside and came running in at the sound of his mother's hysterical screaming.

Maria, 34, said: "The moments afterwards were devastating. For a little baby to be screaming like that. The way the dog had her face, looking at her after it let go I just thought she was going to die.
"The only thing I was concerned about was making sure she was alive."

Paramedics airlifted the tot from her home in Archway, North London, to hospital.
Surgeons managed to save her nose and stitch up her face.

Five months on, the outgoing tot’s recovery has amazed Maria, dad Michael and brothers Teddy, nine, and John, eight.

However, Mayzee Jo, who turns two in April, needs more surgery on her nostrils.

Maria said: “It’s only now I’ve been able to look at the pictures of her after it happened.”

It is believed the dog is in kennels awaiting its fate.

Owner Gemma Neil, 28, has admitted having a dangerously out of control dog and faces sentence at Blackfriars crown court this month.

Maria said: "It was a friend of mine whose dog it was. People need to be made aware of how easy it can happen. There are so many good dogs out there and good owners, but then you can just get that one.

"People need to be made aware of how easy it can happen. But if a dog bites a child it's down to the owner. You might think a dog is alright but you need to be sure."

In the months after the attack the family raised £466 for the air ambulance crew which came her aid.
Maria said: "It's only now I've been able to look at the pictures of her after it happened.

"But we've got through this, that's the message I want others who this might happen to know.

"Just a few weeks after there was a dog attack in the news where a baby was killed. It could have been so much worse.

"The surgeons were amazing and you wouldn't believe how confident Mayzee Jo is. You would have think going through such a shock would have changed her. She's amazing."

(Mirror UK - Feb 12, 2015)