Mum sacrifices her arms to protect daughter from ‘aggressive’ bully XL dog

A mum has been left petrified and with potentially life-changing injuries after protecting her daughter from an ‘aggressive’ bully XL dog. Katie Deere was walking her dog along with her young child in a pushchair before the bully XL pounced.

The 31-year-old was ‘pouring with blood’ as she was rushed to hospital for surgery. Now, Katie admits it’s ‘hard to know what the future means’ for her following the vicious episode.

Teaching assistant Katie says she spotted the ‘aggressive looking loose dog’ looking at her from the other side of Doncaster Road in Askern, South Yorkshire, on August 17. Worried, Katie picked up her own dog and continued walking, Yorkshire Live reports.

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But before she knew it the dog ran across the road and pounced upon her, gripping on to her arm. Thankfully, quick-thinking Katie managed to push the pram, which her young daughter was in, towards a passer-by who had stopped to help.

Her dog also jumped out of her arms and ran away, meaning Katie took the brunt of the attack. A man who had witnessed the whole thing from the road jumped out of his lorry and ran to Katie’s assistance.

In an act of incredible bravery he managed to pull the dog off Katie, freeing her arm and then called an ambulance. Katie was blue-lighted to Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, where paramedics at the scene felt was the best place for the injuries she had sustained in the attack.

It was here that Katie had to endure a five-hour surgery on both of her arms, including fifty stitches and a repair of her left finger, which was partially amputated. Reliving the harrowing incident, Katie said: “I can remember seeing the dog running towards me, truthfully I was absolutely petrified, I love dogs, but I could see it was coming for me and it just looked so angry.

“Some things are really clear and some things really aren’t, I don’t know if that is my way of blocking out the trauma. I can remember saying to the woman at the side of the road ‘please don’t let me die I have a daughter.’ “The bully XL jumped up at me and latched on to my arm and latched on to it, my dog jumped from my arms and ran away.

“I pushed my daughter in her pram towards somebody who had come over to try and help, which I knew carried a risk in itself but it was somebody I recognised from the local area and in that moment it felt like the safest thing to do. As much as I knew I was in danger I just wanted my daughter out of the way, I knew my mum and dad would be called and she would be ok.

“I can just remember the most horrific and intense pain, everyone says child labour is the worst pain, but it’s not. I wouldn’t wish the pain on anybody.”

A local man, who Katie now knows as Stephen, was driving his lorry when he spotted Katie in trouble. Katie added: “The lorry driver that saved me said there was so much blood dripping from my arm, he said he didn’t know if I was going to survive or not.

“The ambulance got there first, it didn’t go through as critical initially, but they soon changed that and an air ambulance arrived. My finger was classed as a partial amputation, my left finger had been broken at a 90 degree angle and I had gashes out of my right arm (top and bottom), my left arm has got pins in and I have had to have about 50 stitches.

“My arms are both still in pot, so I have had to move back in with my mum, who is feeding me dressing me and caring for my daughter.” Asked about what the future holds for her, Katie said: “Truthfully it’s hard to know what the future means for me now, we don’t know at the moment what the long term damage will be until the stitches are out.

“We don’t know yet if there will be any nerve damage, I have to start physio and re-build the muscle, I will have permanent scars on my arms and I will have mental scars as well. It’s changed me massively as a person I was so confident and now I am so anxious I can’t go anywhere without my mum or dad without getting overwhelmed and ending up in tears because it’s just all too much.

“I’m petrified of having to take my own dog out now, even when I am better, how will I ever feel safe again taking my daughter and my dog out now? It’s unfair that I feel I shouldn’t be able to go out and walk my dog and have my daughter in the pushchair.”

Katie’s auntie, Jayne Redfern, has set up a Go Fund Me on behalf of Katie in order to support the mum and her family in her recovery to hopefully ‘relieve the stress and worry they are all going through’. Katie added: “I just want to get better in my head, I haven’t thought about the financial strain but obviously the constant hospital trips to Sheffield, it all adds up.

“It sounds daft but it’s things like, I’ve had to buy bigger t-shirts so my mum can get my arms in, it’s little things like that you don’t even think about.” Following the incident Katie managed to track down the man who came to her aid, she said: “After the incident I managed to get in contact with Stephen through his work place, McGregrors, he said he hadn’t stopped thinking about me.

“He said he didn’t know what he was going to do but he knew he had to do something. If he had not been there I would not have been able to stop that dog, he is the definition of a local hero and he is the reason I am still here today.

“After I contacted his work I heard that he got employee of the month at his work for his bravery, which he fully deserves.” The dog involved in the incident was ultimately destroyed after being ‘seized’ by armed officers.

Katie added: “I am an animal lover and I don’t wish for any animal to be destroyed but if that would have been a child, god forbid my daughter, they would have been killed.” You can donate to Katie’s Go Fund Me, here.

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