Two Traumatic Ordeals in One Month

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My son has been to the hospital two times this month and both times was for the same reason. A dog bite to the face. I can’t believe that it happened once let alone twice but from now on he is never to be near a dog. I can’t handle going through it again. The first time was with my brother in law’s stupid dog that we rescued from being neglected at his father’s house. I was in class that day when I got a phone call from my mother in law telling me that my son had an accident but that it wasn’t life or death and they were going to take him to the hospital and my husband would pick me up on his way there while my in laws took our son to the hospital. When I got to the hospital I was shocked to see my baby’s face bleeding from open wounds. Then I was pissed when I found out that my brother in law’s dog was responsible for it. My husband said he was outside with my son and the dog and that they played just fine for about 20 minutes before she bit him. After she bit him my father in law put her away while they loaded my son into the car. He said she had one of his work gloves in her mouth and that he thinks that my son may have reached for the glove to play with her and that is why she attacked him. I was even more pissed because I have seen her play with others this way and not even growl for it. They didn’t tell me this on the phone as to not panic me but that failed because I panicked as soon as I heard he needed to go to the hospital. We were at that awful hospital for 4 hours without my son being seen even though patients from the back were being discharged. They didn’t even call animal control so that we could file a report as we waited. That hospital is absolutely horrible and I would never use it again. There was a woman vomiting her guts out because of an ulcer and even she wasn't seen by the time we decided to just leave. We left and went to the urgent care we usually take him to so that we could be seen quickly. They couldn’t do anything for the wounds but they did help us file a report to animal control and called ahead to our usual hospital so that we would be seen immediately. The worst part of the whole ordeal was my husband and I having to hold down our son for the cleaning, injections for numbing, and stitching of the wounds. Our son screamed in betrayal and fear during it. He screamed “no doctor don’t do that, I have a bite”, “mommy daddy please no”, he cried “mommy” over and over when he got tired of physically fighting, and just screamed and cried in general while trying to fight everyone off. It hurt us so much to do this to our son and my husband couldn’t help but cry. I was so full of hate for the dog for putting us in this situation. All animal control ordered was that she be put under quarantine for 10 days which is bull because she doesn’t leave the house so she basically got no punishment at all. I wish they would have put the mutt down. I don’t want to see or hear her and I don’t let my son so much as glance her way. She is dead to me and I could care less what happens to her. The second time it happened was during my visit to help family in Philadelphia. My aunt had popped by my mom’s house by surprise as we were getting back from my mom’s appointment about her leg, she has been recently operated on her Achilles tendon. When we got inside we saw my aunt’s dog and my son went to go pet it when it growled at him. My aunt scolded the dog so I figured she had the situation under control and went to go watch for my mom to ensure she didn’t fall while coming up the steps of the house. That is when I heard my aunt scream and beat her dog and my son crying holding his eye and I realized the dog bit him. I ran upstairs to the bathroom with him once again angry at a dog for hurting my son when all he wanted was to play. His eye was all bruised and swollen with a cut bleeding below it. My aunt put her dog in its carrier then came to me crying and apologizing profusely. I called the hospital to ensure that our insurance was accepted and thank goodness it was. We got there, were seen immediately, and didn’t have to go through getting stitches again. My son had to be given medicine to calmed down because he refused to cooperate to go get an x-ray and who could blame him after the traumatic events he went through the first time. When he was high as a kite and cooperated we got his x-ray, nothing was in his eye thank goodness, his wound was cleaned, and he got a butterfly stitch. He is almost fully healed from that incident now and I am glad it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. From now on he is never to be near a dog. This was too much for us to handle and I refuse to let it happen again. I wish they would have put my aunt’s dog down as well. The only good thing from both times is that the dogs were both fully vaccinated so we didn’t have to worry about anything worse happening. I don’t want to deal with dogs myself now because of all of this. Have you had to deal with something like this? What happened and how was it dealt with? What do you think your reaction to your child being bit in the face by a dog would have been like, the same or opposite of mine?