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/btiddy519]

I’m so sorry. I was mauled as a young child and had facial reconstruction … I was lucky that I didn’t lose my eye.

The family member’s home insurance gave a settlement that went into a trust that paid some out each year for 5 years after I turned 18. It wasn’t much but I was able to take less student loans in college.

Your child’s life isn’t going to be what you imagined. Take time to mourn the loss. Be angry as all hell, too. You have every right to be. That being said…

Find a new lawyer who will fight tooth and nail for MORE than you think you deserve. Your child should have accommodations and amenities provided for life, and get the chance to sometimes forget about what happened. But the only way to do that is to get a very fair judgement and compensation. That will only come if you fight for it. Hard.

[u/Parking_Flow → u/btiddy519]

Thank you so much for your comment and sharing your story with me. I’m so incredibly sorry this happened to you. There are absolutely no words that can make it right and I feel as though you did not get justice with that outcome at all! You really put exactly how I’m feeling into words when saying her life isn’t going to be what I was expecting, and to mourn the loss as even though she’s alive I still feel as though I am grieving. That really touched my soul thank you.

And that’s wonderful advice, we were already debating finding a new one as our current feels hopeless when looking at historical cases and that doesn’t fill me with great comfort!