A woman has been left afraid to go outside after she was viciously attacked by three dogs who ripped her face apart.
Dipuo Kokolsi was washing dishes in her kitchen when the pit bulls entered her home and began leaping at her.
Her ears, lips, nose, and parts of her arms and legs were attacked before a neighbour heard her screams and rushed over to save her.
Dipuo is now fearful of leaving her home because she dreads the stares and whispers of strangers.
“I was in the kitchen when suddenly they attacked me,” said the 47-year-old mum of three.
“The first one lunged at me and bit my ear and I fell to the ground.
“I tried getting up to escape but I kept slipping.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening.”
The dogs, reportedly owned by her employer, had managed to wriggle free from their chains.
Luckily neighbour Ziggy Abdullah came running to help.
He tried pulling the dogs from Dipuo but was forced to shoot the dogs to save her.
“I saw only blood and flesh,” he told News24.
“It looked like a horror movie.
I have never in my 50 years seen something like that before.”
Dipuo was rushed to hospital where doctors were left shocked at the extent of her injuries.
After several skin grafts, she was in stable condition but struggles to face her own reflection in the mirror.
She said: “My mouth was open and my teeth were visible.”
With no lips, Dipuo was at risk of gum disease and tooth loss.
She couldn’t hold food in her mouth – it spilled out and she had to liquidise her meals and lie down to swallow.
Her daughter Patricia, age 32, said: “They gave me about five minutes to see her.
“At first I didn’t recognise her.
“I only knew it was her after she waved at me to get my attention.”
After several months, the single mother, from Johannesburg, South Africa, was discharged to her parents’ home, but says her own grandchildren had grown scared of her.
Surgeons have started reconstructing Dipuo’s upper lip and her next operations will involve rebuilding her nose and right ear.
She said: “My grandchildren can now sit with me and sleep in the same bedroom as me.
“I don’t want to see my reflection at all.
“People have shown me pictures on their phones of how I looked immediately after the attack and it hurt me so deeply.
“I still can’t accept the way I look.
“The dogs ate all my flesh. I don’t even have a nose.
“Sometimes I randomly get memories of those dogs and I scream in my sleep.”
Under South African law, pet owners are accountable for any injury or damage caused by their dogs and could face criminal and civil lawsuits.
But Dipuo says nothing will make up for the trauma she has been through.
She added: “All I want is to be healed and pain-free.
“I miss how things were before.”
