A seven-year-old boy is in hospital after a vicious dog attack west of Edmonton. His family is still reeling after their boy spent hours in surgery.
It’s hard for Kevin Lovely to recall the past few days. His family has been staying at the Stollery Children’s Hospital after his son Eddie was attacked on Wednesday by two dogs.
“The trauma he’s going to have for the rest of his life, that day you know he was ripped apart,” said Lovely.
It happened as the little boy was running to retrieve his ball from the school bus.
“I could see from our front living room window, the neighbour’s dog, the big black one, running across and tackling my son to the ground.”
Lovely said the dogs would not let Eddie go until the bus driver and monitor intervened, forcing them to run off. Eddie’s 14-year-old sister yelled to the family to get help.
Both EMS and Parkland RCMP were called to the Paul First Nation near Wabamun to assist with the incident.
“I couldn’t get him off the bus because of his injuries. It horrified me so I had my brother-in-law wrap him up in a blanket and bring him in the house,” Lovely said.
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“His left thigh was so badly damaged, his muscle and his veins, blood vessels and everything was hanging out, his skin was just hanging there. They couldn’t stop the bleeding, they took him by ambulance and he was eventually airlifted.”
STARS confirmed the incident in a statement to Global News.
“STARS was dispatched to a scene call emergency late Wednesday afternoon. A child with injuries consistent with an animal attack was transported to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton,” read the statement.
Eddie has now undergone intensive surgery, requiring more than 100 stitches. He also caught an infection while recovering.
The family expects to be in the hospital with their seven-year-old until late next week.
“My son, he’s starting to have a few nightmares here now, so I don’t think he’ll ever want to go near a dog. I hope not but I keep telling him all dogs are not like that,” said Lovely.
Lovely said he has not heard anything from the dog’s owners or police about the fate of the dogs involved. He mainly just wants to ensure other children aren’t hurt.
“If something like this happened again, the owner should be held responsible for this. If it wasn’t for the bus driver, my son probably wouldn’t be here. Make sure your dogs (are) not trained to attack, especially an innocent little child like that’s not right. He should be able to walk on the road or play in the yard without worrying about dogs,” Lovely said.
Eddie is taking it slow as he starts his recovery, trying to get caught up on school work. It may be a long time before he can go out and play again.
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