A MOTHER has shared devastating images of her son who had his face ripped to shreds following a horrific attack by their family dog.
Jodie Griffiths, a mother of eight, posted the photos after her son was attacked by the family Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Blizzard. Ms. Griffiths described the dog as her son Romy’s “best friend” after the attack, which required multiple stitches and emergency treatment, as per the report of Dailymail.
On December 27, Ms. Griffiths was at work when the incident occurred.
Young Romy was left with deep cuts across his nose and face, a fractured jaw, and missing teeth as a result of his injuries.
Her partner issued the heartwrenching news to the child’s mother from their home in the West Midlands.
Romy’s father, Daniel Griffiths, stated that the incident occurred while the children were playing with their toys in the living room.
Mr. Griffiths stated that the dog was sleeping on the sofa at the time.
He was met with a scream of agony after looking away for a second, finding his son covered in blood from a single bite to the face by the animal.
According to both parents, the dog had never shown signs of aggression prior to the incident.
According to them, the dog was startled by a flying helicopter toy, causing it to lunge at Romy and bite him.
The dog was seized by police under Section 3 of the Dangerous Dog Act before being humanely destroyed.
Ms. Griffiths has since shared the photos in an effort to warn other parents about the risks of dog attacks.
She said: “The kids were playing in the front room with their flying helicopters and the dog was asleep on the chair.
“My partner had got up to go to the kitchen but didn’t even get to the kitchen – he heard Romy scream and turned around and that was just how fast it happened.
“I think the dog was startled awake by one of the flying helicopters and Romy’s face must just have been right there.
“I was at work and got a call from my partner saying the dog had bit the baby – I was very panicked and couldn’t believe it.
“I still find it hard to get my head around it now.
“When I got home Romy was covered in blood and my partner was covered in his blood as well.”
Ms. Griffiths continued: “He was screaming and then he started dozing off to sleep – the doctors said it was because of the shock.
“Then they gave him morphine until he went to the theatre.
“We didn’t quite realize how bad it was until after his surgery because he wouldn’t let anyone look at his face.
“It fractured his jaw, ripped all of his noses, ripped out three teeth from the root – he had to have hundreds and hundreds of stitches, they lost count of how many.
“The damage was really bad on the inside of his nose and they said if the dog had bit down a little bit more his whole nose would have been bitten off.”
Romy was rushed to Wolverhampton’s New Croft Hospital, from which he was transferred to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where he received hundreds of stitches to repair the damage.
Due to the extensive damage to the child’s face, what was supposed to be a two-hour operation took five hours, followed by two nights in the hospital recovering.
Speaking of the dog, Ms. Griffiths said: “Blizzard has always been a family dog who loved to play, loved a fuss, and wanted to get involved with everything.
“He was a soft dog and the kids loved him to death. He was Romy’s best friend.
“I don’t think it was a planned attack.
“He’s not continued the attack or ragged him about or anything, all that damage was just from one bite.
“At the end of the day I will always put my kids first and it was the best thing for the dog to go and hopefully be rehomed.
“I would never have trusted him around my kids again, I don’t trust any dog anymore.
“One came up to Romy in the street when he was in the pram and I spun the pram around and started screaming hysterically to get it away from him.”
