Six weeks after she was mauled by a Great Dane at the Springfield home of her older half-sister, the 10-year-old girl from Chatham is at a rehabilitation center in St. Louis, doing her best to learn how to walk without a limp.
Her smile remains bright in selfies taken with her half-sister Alexis, 15, whom she was visiting when the dog attacked her in a backyard. Her limbs remain bandaged, however, and the back of her head is still bloody from the attack, which left her with a partially detached scalp.
“She wants to go home,” says her father Joseph Rocha, who hasn’t been able to see his daughter since she left Springfield for St. Louis in an ambulance about two weeks ago. He went back to work full time just this week at a retail store where he’s worked for seven years, and money is tight.
“I’ve burned through everything that I have left,” Rocha said. “I need to work. We don’t have the money to drive back and forth to St. Louis.”
A 911 recording of the call for help when Illyania was found is chilling. Rocha’s ex-wife, who is the mother of Alexis but not Illyania, approaches tears as she promises the girl that she won’t die and follows the dispatcher’s instructions to get the dog to a safe place and apply towels and pressure to the bleeding areas.
“Where is she injured?” the dispatcher asks.
“Oh my God – all over,” Rocha’s ex-wife responds. “All over. It’s really bad.”
“Is she conscious and talking to you?” the dispatcher asks.
“She’s talking a little bit,” the woman answers. “It’s bad. I didn’t even know she came out here in the yard.”
“We’ve got people headed out to you,” the dispatcher says. “Is she fully alert? Knows what’s going on?”
“No, you’re not going to die, baby,” the woman tells Illyania as the dispatcher listens in. “She is talking. You’re not going to die. I’m on the phone with 911, sweetie.”
“Keep pressure on the wounds,” the dispatcher says. “Do not look at it.”
INCOMPETENT SANGAMON COUNTY OFFICERS
The Great Dane died after being tasered by sheriff’s deputies who tried without success to control the dog so that it could be taken to the Sangamon County Animal Control Center. One deputy was bitten.
“It’s a big Great Dane, very vicious,” the deputy who was bitten says over the radio. “He’s been tased twice. He got me on my left knee, ripped my pants and got my knee pretty good.”
“10-4, you use whatever force is necessary get control of that animal,” a sheriff’s employee answers over the radio.
“10-4, the next is going to be lethal,” the deputy who was bitten responds.
“Affirmative,” the sheriff’s employee answers.
These people didn't have the first clue in how to handle this dog. They all need remedial training. Can you imagine if this were a pit bull that this officer was whining about not being able to control? They're like the Keystone Cops in their incompetence.
Seriously, the dog needed to be euthanized - but their job is to treat the animal humanely just as a human prisoner is required to be treated humanely.
Illyania was in intensive care for more than a week. She’s undergone four surgeries. And when her family told her that supporters were making t-shirts and planning fundraisers and asked her if she had any ideas for a slogan, Illyania, still in intensive care, had a simple answer.
“I will go the mile.”
“I said, ‘Where did you come up with that?’” her half-sister Alexis recalls. “She said ‘It just felt right.’”
And so t-shirts bearing the words “Go The Mile” are now being sold at www.teamillyania.com. About 75 people attended a trivia night fundraiser and silent auction last week at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, which donated the space. All proceeds from the eighth annual Neighborhood Connection five-kilometer run-and-walk in Springfield on June 12 will go to Illyania’s family.
“She does miss her dogs,” Alexis says. “Every time I see her, she asks about them. She still likes dogs, she just doesn’t like Great Danes. That’s what she told me when she asked me to bring her stuffed animals.”
(Illinois Times - May 28, 2015)
Earlier:
Illinois: Girl, 10, nearly killed by her sister's Great Dane
