A 3-year-old girl was viciously attacked by a dog in England, requiring three hours of facial surgery.
Young Eloise Smith was at a playdate at a friend’s home in Doncaster, South Yorkshire on Dec. 1 when the family’s Staffordshire-Terrier mix mauled her, according to her family.
The girl’s mother, Stacey Louise Murray, told SWNS that she became nauseous after she sped over to the home to find Eloise covered in blood and with bite wounds down to the bone on her face — but she had to remain calm.
“She was crying when I got to the house and her face was wrapped up in a white towel,” Stacey told the outlet.
“As I put my hands out to get her and the towel dropped revealing her injuries it made me feel sick, but I couldn’t have shown any emotion as it would have made her feel worse,” she said.
“My partner couldn’t even look at her – it just made him cry,” she said, adding that they wished they could have been there when it happened.
Despite the awful injuries, the “resilient” toddler appeared to forgive her assailant.
“Apparently the dog bit her once, let go, and then it sat next to her and she was sat next to the dog trying to calm it down,” Stacey said.
They rushed Eloise to Rotherham Hospital, where she underwent three hours of surgery.
“She had a through-and-through bite to the bottom of her right cheek that went through to her jaw and then she had a cut in the corner of her eye that needed to be stitched,” Stacey said.
“She had another cut that needed to be stitched and a gash on her cheekbone that needed to be stitched too.”
The poor girl blamed herself for the attack, Eloise’s mother said.
“She said when we were in the hospital, ‘it’s my fault, I’m sorry’,” Stacey said. “That was heartbreaking for me to hear her say that.”
South Yorkshire Police said that they responded to a report of the mauling and investigated.
No arrests were made, but police said in a statement that “the dog was later destroyed.”
Stacey said while she was initially “very angry” at the family after the incident, “but as time has gone on emotions have settled and now Elouise has come out the other side.”
“They’re feeling it as well,” she said, adding that they remain friends. “I couldn’t imagine having to ring someone to tell them that their dog had bit their child.
The distraught mother says that now she fears leaving her daughter’s side.
“I don’t worry necessarily about any potential scarring as it’s her own story to tell as she gets older but I worry about leaving her alone with anybody at the minute – she’s not left my side and I don’t think she will for a while.”
“We allowed her to go for dinner and have a playdate,” Stacey said. “We can’t go back, it’s happened now.”