PITBULL ATTACK: Texas mom's arm TORN OFF by family dog she rescued two years ago
A woman who used to sleep with her family dog reportedly turned on her and almost ate her alive as he snapped and devoured "half her arm" in a vicious attack.
Tya Lucas, 41, from Lewisville, Texas, was introducing her new pup Roo to her pal Peter, 33, on May 16 when the seven-stone pitbull Hercules lunged at him and buried his teeth in his neck. Tya sprang into action and pried the dog away from Peter, locking him inside the bathroom. Later, when the mother-of-one was alone in the living room with the beast, it turned on her.
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The pitbull viciously attacked Tya and tore off two-thirds of her right arm. He then proceeded to eat her bicep and also dug its teeth into her leg and foot. Tya's daughter Tana, 20, and her husband Harley, 21, luckily had just arrived home at that moment and Harley was able to pull the canine away from Tya and carry her outside the home. At the same time, Officer Jordan Potter arrived at the scene in response to Tana’s 911 call. "The police said if I'd passed out in the house, he would have eaten me from my insides," Tya told the New York Post. "They said they'd seen stabbings, gunshot wounds and they've never seen what they saw that day." Officer Potter saved her life by putting a tourniquet on her arm. “They put a tourniquet on my arm and the doctor said if he hadn’t been there to do that at that exact moment, then I wouldn’t have made it until the ambulance got there.”
Last week, I got to speak with Tya Lucas, who survived a brutal dog attack in #lewisville. An officer said it was the worst body mutilation he’s seen. It was a tough story to hear and write. But I think her recovery and resilience is worth a read. Look out for it soon @DentonRC pic.twitter.com/xPW4Gpo0oM
— brooke colombo (@BrookeColombo) June 9, 2022
According to the Post, Tana and Harley had found Hercules abandoned on the side of the road two years ago. They said he was covered in cigarette burns when they found him. Tya, a bartender, said the pooch had never displayed signs of aggression and even slept on her bed the night before the incident. "I don't know how many times he bit me. I think it went on for about five minutes. I thought I was going to die. I fought somehow to stay alive," she said.
Tya was rushed to a hospital and placed on a ventilator for two days. She would end up staying at the hospital for 19 days, with hundreds of stiches across her limbs and five surgeries to remove dead skin. Doctors also performed a sixth operation in which they took some muscle from her back, rolled it up into the shape of a bicep, and attached it to her arm. “My arm bends a couple of inches but it’s stiff. My hand is really swollen, my wrist doesn’t move, there’s 15 inches of nerves damaged, my nerves and tendons were crushed,” said Tya. “For each inch that was damaged, it takes a month to come back. My wrist hangs there, I don’t have much use of my hand. I had staples in my leg and under my foot. I’m in constant pain.” Tya's daughter has set up a GoFundMe campaign to cover medical bills, which are reportedly over $180,000 thus far.
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The dog was given to the police and later put down. While Tya has no idea what triggered the aggression, the attack has left her terrified of dogs in general. In a statement to the Post, Lewisville Police Department Public Information Coordinator Matt Martucci said, “Officer Potter is very proud of the fact that he was able to save the woman’s life — but if you ask him it was all just in the line of duty to serve and protect the residents of Lewisville. This was a pretty traumatic situation for this family [but his] actions kept it from being a deadly situation and provided a little comfort for the family”