After two weeks in the hospital, four-year-old Zion is back home — but he has a lot of healing left to do.
“He’s excited to be out of the hospital,” his mother Tiffany McHan told People magazine.
“We’re still taking precautions so he doesn’t further injure himself. He’s eating and he’s going to the bathroom. He has a long recovery, but he’s in good spirits.”
Zion was attacked by five dogs— all
pit bulls —on Dec. 8 outside his aunt’s house
in Liberty, Texas.
Zion was playing outside his aunt’s Liberty, Texas, home with his cousin on Dec. 8 when one of her pit bulls pounced on Zion and several others quickly joined in. Zion’s cousin ran to tell their parents what happened.
His father, Trevion, did his best to fight off the animals, but before he could free his son, the boy had sustained serious injuries.
“When I saw Zion freed, I picked him up and ran into the house,” Tiffany told People. “There was blood everywhere. I didn’t think he was gonna make it. I remember him telling me, ‘Mommy, I’m okay. I’m okay.’”
After the attack, little Zion was taken to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Doctors there found he had a fractured skull, damage to his ears, several lacerations on his face and internal damage to the right side of his head, among other injuries.
"his cousin swings open door and his crying uncontrollably but utters the dogs are eating Zion. I ran for my life for my son life to the backyard were i see across the yard 5 pit bulls are attacking him pulling his little body every which way by the time I make it to him, I'm picking dogs up and body slamming them I'm punching and screaming it scared the dogs away from Zion my wife made it outside by the time the dogs disburse and was able to take zion from me and into the house. the dogs turned the aggression towards me I fought them off while their mouth are still stained red with his blood just traumatized at what i'm seeing before realizing i need to check on my son forget the dogs. I make it inside and he's covered in blood there's gashes all over his head n face, eye is split, both his ears are hanging from his head there's a gash by ear and jawbone that's showing his jawbone"
Zion could see that the attack had disfigured him.
Not discounting the pain he's going through, but he doesn't
look that bad compared to other Pit Bull attacks
“We still have a difficult road ahead. It’s heartbreaking and some days… [it is] unbearable to deal with the obvious changes in his physical appearance,” Rochele Howard says of her grandson Zion. “But there are moments… moments when he is singing, dancing and playing. There is so much that went wrong that day and so much more that could have gone wrong. He survived.”
“Watching [Zion] in the hospital was hard at first,” said Rochele. “When he first saw himself in mirror, he said he was ugly and that he looked weird.
“Now that he will have permanent visual injuries, I worry about how people will treat him. He survived the attack from the dogs but now he has to deal with people and sometimes they cause more damage and pain than the dogs.”
In a photo shared on Facebook by his grandmother, Zion stands next to his father as they leave the hospital room. Zion’s face is obviously twisted – the result of nerve damage caused by the dogs.
McHan’s sister, who owned the dogs, has surrendered them to Liberty police and they have been euthanized, McHan says. The family does not plan to press charges, she adds.
What about their pit bulls?
Zion’s parents have created a GoFundMe page to get assistance with his medical expenses.
The incident marks the second tragedy for the family in recent months. In October, the family’s Houston apartment was destroyed during Hurricane Harvey and the family has been living in a hotel. Mchan said the family escaped the floodwaters on a small boat.
“That’s nothing compared to going through this,” McHan previously told PEOPLE. “But now we don’t have anywhere for our baby to go.”
(The Epoch Times - Dec 20, 2017)
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