My name is Brittany Wright.
On Jan 4, 2011; just 2 days after our oldest
son; Zachary, turned 2 he was brutally mauled by our household dog which nearly
took his life. It took my mother and myself to pull my shar-pei mixed dog off of
my son. It was the worst experience any parent would ever want to endure. We
were all watching tv late that Jan night when Zachary decided to snuggle up with
our dog like he has always done before.
For some unexplained reason our dog
turned for the worst. He pinned my son down to the floor locking his teeth into
my sons skull shaking him across the floor like a rag doll. My mother and i
jumped up to pry the dog off. We tried everything from pounding our fists into
the dogs head hoping he would unlock his jaw. I was even prying his teeth apart
but nothing was working.
Finally, I made a crazy decision to poke the dog in the
eyes which got him to release my son, dropping him to the floor. My mother; with
her adrenaline pumping picked our 45lb dog up with one hand literally throwing
him outside. While she was handling the dog I was able to pick my son up holding
his limp body in my arms. My first thought was that my son was already dead
because during the whole attack neither my mother or I ever heard a cry from my
son. We were so worried that the dog had already killed him.
So, when I was
finally able to hold my son in my arms and heard him cry for the first time it
was such a sigh of relief but I knew he wasn't out of the woods just yet. I
panicked screaming, "Mom he needs to go to the hospital." He had a massive whole
in his skull, flapped over skin on his face and blood just gushing out
everywhere. There was so much blood we couldn't pinpoint just where he was
ripped open. In panic mode i was looking for my keys and cell phone. I don't
know what I was thinking when I was getting ready to drive him to the ER.
Luckily, my mother calmed me down and said we needed to call 911. So, she took
my son to the sink where she started applying pressure to the areas we could see
blood gushing out while I called 911. When the paramedics arrived they observed
his wounds and immediately wanted to rush my son and I to Maricopa Medical
Center in Phoenix, AZ since they were the best in head trauma. As they were
loading him into the ambulance my son started pointing at the fire truck and in
excitement starts screaming "truck, truck". He had a huge fascination with fire
trucks. So, despite all the pain he was in he was still able to be the funny
little boy that I so deeply loved.
When we arrived at the hospital the nurses
flushed out his wounds to get a better view of what was going on underneath all
the blood. That is when they decided he needed to get a cat scan of his head to
make sure the teeth didn't puncture through the skull. Since I was 39 weeks
pregnant I had to stay in the room with doctors looking at the image of my son's
skull on the computer screen. I just remember looking at the image and seeing
this massive hole thinking oh my goodness this cant be good. Then the doctors
all hovering around saying "we need to get him in surgery right now."
That's
when I began to cry but the doctor on call proceeded to tell me that from the
looks of the cat scan it looks like the dog punctured through the skull and
possibly into the main vein in the brain and parts of his brain. He told me that
I would then have to meet with the neurosurgeon to discuss further details. When
it came time for surgery the neurosurgeon was incredible. He was able to explain
everything in detail so I fully understood what was going on. He kept me calm
until he had to tell me the 3 possible outcomes. First outcome is the main vein
is punctured which would result in death. Second outcome is parts of the brain
may be punctured which will need to be cleaned out and depending on how badly
damaged may result in parts of the brain being removed. Third outcome is brain
and vein are not punctured so all they would have to do is clean out the inside
of the skull for dog tooth fragments and dog saliva which could result in
infection of the brain which is still serious.
But even if he came out of the
surgery alive they wanted to put him in a medically induced coma to help prevent
the brain from swelling. The odds for my son were not looking good. They gave
him a 30% survival rate before going into surgery. I had lost it at that point.
I held my son crying not wanting to let go because I didn't know if it was going
to be the last time I ever saw him alive again.
Waiting for his surgery to be
over was the longest time of my life.
The worst part of all of this was my
husband was in mid transit coming home from Afghanistan for his R&R to be at
the scheduled induction of our second son; Skylar who was due Jan 9,2011. I made
several calls to Red Cross trying to relay the message but because he was in mid
transit they said it would be difficult to reach him but they tried anyways.
Desperate as I was I wrote my husband an email on Facebook in hopes that he
would check his emails and see the bloody pictures of our son when he stopped to
switch planes. That was exactly how he found out. By the time he received my
email my son was out of surgery.
The neurosurgeon came out with such a relieved
expression. With joy in his voice he said Zachary was extremely lucky. The
punctured wound came 1 cm away from puncturing the main vein in the brain. He
was also lucky that no parts of the brain were damaged. The only thing he is at
risk for is the infection of the brain due to dog tooth fragments and dog saliva
which they had cleaned out. Zachary had lost so much blood he did have to
undergo one blood transfusion but luckily never was put in a coma.
The trauma
didn't stop there for our family. While Zachary was recovering from the surgery
the nurses noticed my legs swelling and advised me to go down to maternity
triage. I went down 1 floor below my son. They took my blood pressure and it was
through the roof. It was so high I was at risk for a heart attack. They than ran
a urine sample where they found protein in my urine. I was then diagnosed with
preeclampsia and hypertension. I had to be medically induced because now my
unborn child's life hangs in the balance as well as mine if I didn't get
induced.
My poor mother was running back and fourth between two floors checking
on me and my son. My younger brother arrived at the hospital and was able to
stay with Zachary while my mother assisted me in birth since my husband was
still traveling back to the states. Because of all the trauma I suffered I
didn't have the regular contractions like most women. Instead of having back or
stomach labor I was having chest labor. Every time I peaked in a contraction I
couldn't breathe and my chest hurt so bad. The OBGYN was so concerned she ran an
ultrasound to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack.
16 hrs later I gave
birth to my second son; Skylar at 4:01am Jan 6, 2011. The very next day is when
my husband finally arrived and held Skylar for the first time and then went
upstairs to the PICU to see our oldest son. He said it was the worst feeling in
the world walking into the room and seeing Zachary in so much pain. He had maxed
out on his pain medication so he was extremely agitated.
Zachary remained in the
hospital for an entire week before being released but had to return 2 more times
for suture removals from skull and face. Today my son is a happy, healthy,
active 5 year old who loves to play sports, build Legos and learn new things.
For awhile he struggled with his speech and motor skills but received great help
from the Indian River School District in Watertown, NY.
This past Jan my husband
got out of the army and we moved back to Arizona where Zachary continued his
services. Just a few months ago he was officially cleared from all his services.
He will start Kindergarden this July. His accomplishments never go unnoticed in
this family for he has made a remarkable recovery and continues to touch the
hearts of many with his story of survival. He remembers every detail of his
attack and loves to tell his story. We all must remember that dogs are animals
with animal instincts. We must always be cautious and never let our guard down
with any animal...that will always be my greatest regret.
