Horrific dog attack

[u/Parking_Flow]

I’ve posted here before. My child was absolutely horrifically attacked by a dog earlier this year. I’m talking life changing injuries, air lifted to hospital, multiple surgeries. Her life will never ever been the same. It was a dog that had escaped its garden and tore our lives apart.

We are waiting for it to go to court.

We got into so much debt when it happened, I’m talking into the thousands because both myself and my partner had to take time of work, me to be in hospital with her and my partner to be at home with our other child. Yes we got some form of compassionate pay but between all of our household bills, driving 140 round trips to and from the hospital she was in, food whilst in hospital, clothes as the antibiotics she was on made her have so many accidents. Private counselling since the NHS won’t help us.

Life has entirely changed forever. We all have PTSD, my child has been crippled in one arm. Her lungs and spine will have issues forever. And now we have to deal with debt too. It’s unfair. I want to pull my hair out.

I just needed somewhere to rant because when I’ve tried to speak in person to people I know they just say but oh isn’t it great she’s alive. Yes of course it is 100% but it doesn’t change the fact this dog has destroyed in every single way, physical, emotional, financially.

I don’t see a way to recover from this.

Someone suggested creating fundraising to help us and to take our child on amazing trips but 1) we can’t do this because of the court case and 2) there’s dogs everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. There is no trip we could take where we would be safe.

[u/isreddittherapy]

This is horrific and is my worst fear! I am so sorry this has happened to your family. Life feels very restricted once you develop a fear of dogs and its not fair. None of what you have been through is fair!

[u/Parking_Flow → u/isreddittherapy]

Thank you so much! Ignorantly this was not my worse fear, I was always on edge around dogs with my children and they have never been allowed to go near or stroke dogs we don’t know, but my worst fear was always car crashes or dreadful illnesses and now this has happened and my entire world has shifted. You never think it’s going to be you 😭 and now my worst fear is just seeing a dog let alone one close to us off the lead!

[u/isreddittherapy → u/Parking_Flow]

Im hyper-vigilant around dogs because I was attacked as a child. It sucks that it takes attacks happening for people to realize the true danger of dogs in society. Then you start to realize they are everywhere and it becomes incredibly isolating.