Dog Bite

On Saturday, June 4, Clark and Katelyn were attending a combined birthday party for their friends, Roman and Lilu.  I was at Jake's soccer game with Carlee and Joe was out of town, of course.  He always misses the crazy days.  I had dropped them off early to the party so that I could get over to the soccer game on time.  Our afternoon was going to be packed with the birthday party, soccer game, end of the year soccer party, baseball closing ceremonies, and a farewell party for some friends.   

Right after halftime, I got a phone call from Nick (the dad) stating that Katelyn had been bitten by their dog, a bullmastiff, on her arm and that it was bleeding pretty badly and would possibly need stitches so they had called the ambulance.  I told him that I was on my way and would be there in 15-20 minutes.  I also told him to call off the ambulance because I would have to take her to the air force hospital to get the stitches.  I then explained to Jake's coach what happened and pulled him out of the game to rush over to pick up Katelyn.  While I was on my way, Nick called again and said that the ambulance had come anyway, they had cleaned her up, and she would definitely need stitches. 

When I arrived at the house, the paramedics were still there waiting for me.  They had iced and wrapped up her arm and I had to sign a waiver stating that I would get Katelyn the care she needed at the facility of my choice.  Nick and Samantha were extremely upset and sorry that their dog had bitten Kate.  They also said that they were going to put their dog down due to the severity of the bite and his aggressive behavior toward strangers.  Katelyn had been swinging on the swings and Nick put the dog on a leash to do his duty before the party started.  The dog leapt from the leash and bit right onto Katelyn's arm while she was swinging.  The bite was filleted open with two puncture marks--one on the front of her arm, and one on the back. 

The main bite and a smaller puncture bite

A puncture bite on the backside of her arm

After the paramedics left, we all loaded in the car and I started making phone calls.  Since Joe was out of town, I called Jake, one of his partners who was on call.  I couldn't get a hold of him so I called Darin, another partner.  Luckily he was home so we stopped by for him to take a look before heading to the hospital.  I dropped the other kids off at home and headed down to the clinic.  Darin met us there and got things ready to stitch up her arm.  Katelyn was pretty nervous so I spent my time holding her hand and talking to her about anything and everything to keep her mind off what was going on.  When Darin was done, Katelyn asked him how many stitches she had and he said 21 (he didn't really count so that was the lucky number that popped into his head).  We then took pictures to send to Dad, picked up antibiotics and Motrin, and headed home to get the other kids to run off to baseball closing ceremonies (Jake had to miss his soccer party) and finish out the activities of the day.

This is the smile before the stitching and tears began  :(

Dr. Darin Allred--Joe's partner and a friend 

On Sunday, Animal Control came over to take pictures of the dog bite on Katelyn's arm and get all the veterinary information regarding the dog's health.  They were putting it in quarantine for 10 days to make sure it was healthy and without rabies before putting it down.  I felt so terrible and sad for the family.  It was a difficult situation for all involved.  They were in tears at the party and extremely sorry for what happened to Katelyn and wanted to do everything legally and right for the accident.  I felt bad that the result had to be so extreme for their family pet.  They have four children as well and it was going to be really hard on them to lose their dog.  Their kids had been really thoughtful and sweet, calling each day to make sure Katelyn was doing all right and making sure that they all could play again when things got better.

All stitched up--Check out the teeth marks!

A few days later, Katelyn was still babying her arm.  She wouldn't straighten it out and always held it close to her body.  She wasn't complaining of any pain but it was odd that she wasn't acting normal.  Joe had been checking it often but late one night she was complaining of some pain and he saw that there was some fluid seeping out.  He could see that it was definitely infected and decided that he needed to re-open the wound and clean out the infection.  Since I had to play Assistant, I didn't get any pictures of this process but he removed all the stitches, pulled apart the bite, pried it open so that I could squirt in the saline (yes, I had to look at it and help!), and re-stitched it a bit looser so that it could drain over the next couple of days.  Katelyn was so brave and again we talked about everything under the sun so that she could focus on me and not on what Daddy was doing to her arm at our dining room table.   A couple of days later, she was a new girl and using her arm normally.  Things started looking much better and her arm was healing appropriately.  Even though this was a crazy experience, I am grateful that the dog went for her arm and not her neck or cute face.  It could have been really bad.  She has been a trooper and now we have another child that has been stitched up on our table.  Being a doctor's kid does have its perks...