A pregnant mum has revealed how her beloved rescue dog ripped off her lip in a single bite just weeks before she was due to give birth.
Sara Wood was 34 weeks pregnant when her three-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, Blue, lunged at her face.
The 28-year-old was playing outside with the mutt and crouched down to speak to him when he suddenly latched onto her lip.
READ MORE: ‘Lumps on my penis led to terrifying diagnosis weeks before my wedding’
She said the animal severed a vein, causing blood to spray across her face and pregnant belly.
“It was a normal day with great weather, and Blue had a habit of getting into things that are toxic to dogs,” Sara, a stay-at-home mum from Columbia, South Carolina, told Need To Know.
“I’d taken him outside to his chain to let him be in the nice weather, but I’d gotten down to his level and was close to his face.
“I was telling him not to eat the dangerous things that he shouldn’t be eating.
“This was nothing he wasn’t used to, but I was frustrated with him, and he got frustrated with me too.
“It really was less of an attack and more of a reaction.
“It happened in less than a second.
“There was no barking, no growling, no jumping, no mauling or even head shaking.
“It was just one clean bite and half of my lip was gone.
“I didn’t feel anything but a slight tug when it happened, if even that.
“It wasn’t painful, but I was instantly covered in blood, and so was he.
“I saw the blood spray all over my pregnant belly as he tucked his ears and his tail and bowed down as if he was saying sorry that he didn’t mean to hurt me.
“All I could do was hold my face, look at him and say, ‘Oh my God, that’s not good.
“I’m so sorry, buddy.”
The incident happened on 4 October, and Sara is due on 9 November.
She said her immediate thoughts were about protecting her unborn daughter and making sure her toddler, AJ, one, who was inside with her husband, Jay, 38, didn’t become frightened.
Sara, also mum to Kayden, ten, said: “I knew I had to try to remain calm so as not to freak out our toddler.
“I was never fearful of him, nor was I afraid I would die, but the sudden realisation of what had happened broke my heart because we have small children, and I knew that for their safety, even if this was an accident, he had to be removed from the home.
“I knew I had to do what was best for my family as well as my unborn baby, so keeping my composure while calling emergency services and animal control was my top priority in the moment.
“Because of my pregnancy, I knew I had to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, so I waited for EMS and animal control.
“My husband got our toddler ready to take her to her grandparents so he could rush back to the hospital to be with me.”
Animal control officers arrived within 10 to 15 minutes and had to restrain Blue before emergency medical services could take Sara to hospital.
At hospital, medical staff gave her pain relief and antibiotics.
Surgeons were unable to close the wound because there was nothing left of the lip piece to reattach.
Sara said she was also advised that stitching the injury could increase her risk of infection, which would have posed an additional concern during her pregnancy.
Instead, she was instructed to keep the wound clean, moisturised and covered with a medical dressing until she could see a plastic surgeon three days later.
Sara said: “Due to the swelling, eating and drinking were very difficult.
“I used a syringe for the first 10 or so days to drink fluids as I couldn’t drink from a cup or straw.
“After day 10, the swelling had reduced enough that I could keep my lip from hanging forward, and I was finally able to drink from a straw again and eat almost comfortably.
“Thankfully, the bite was as clean as it could be and nothing was torn or shredded.
“It was definitely a severe injury to my face, but we are very thankful because it could’ve been much worse.
“When I first saw my injury in the mirror, my first thoughts were that it really wasn’t good and was going to leave one heck of a scar.
“I couldn’t believe it.
“I realised we were going to have to get rid of our family dog to protect our kids.”
Sara won’t be able to undergo reconstructive surgery until after giving birth and recovering postpartum, as the procedure will require general anaesthesia.
The family had welcomed the dog when he was just four-and-a-half months old, after finding him severely underweight.
Over the following years, he grew into a dog weighing almost 100lbs of “solid muscle”.
Sara said: “He was a couch potato and a love bug.
“He loved me, my husband and our kids.
“Blue was well trained and was a great protector and family dog.
“He never showed any signs of aggression toward any of us, but due to his size he was pretty intimidating to other people and animals even if he just wanted to play.”
The family surrendered Blue to animal control following the incident, and don’t know what has happened to him since.
She said the family desperately hoped he had been assessed and might be given another chance with a suitable home.
Sara said: “We’re excited to meet our baby, but it will also be bittersweet bringing her home because we don’t have our dog.
“He was there during my entire pregnancy with our first daughter.
“He was great with her as a newborn and every day up until and including the day the event happened.
“Our toddler still misses her Blue boy too; she still walks around saying ‘hi boo’ as she looks for him.
“We’ll be getting some photos printed of him to put in our house to remember him, along with displaying his collar, food, and water bowls and toys.
“We are terribly saddened that our family dog is no longer with us, nor do we know what is happening to him.
“It hurts to think about him possibly being euthanised, scared, confused, alone without his family and not understanding why; there is some feeling of guilt as the situation could’ve been avoided had I simply not been close to his face.
“It was a day like any other.
“He was used to having people in his face and had never reacted this way before.
“It was simply an unfortunate moment.
“I think what our home is feeling the most is a sense of mourning for our dog.
“We lost a member of our family over an unfortunate mistake.
“We don’t plan on getting another dog anytime soon, as we need time to mourn the loss of our beloved family member.
“We don’t hold any judgment against our dog or his breed.
“We simply had to do what was the safest option for our family and our children.”
READ MORE: ‘Feeling dizzy while painting was a warning – now I’m one of 1.4m Brits living with the fallout’
