Dog-mauled toddler learning to live again (From Swindon Advertiser)

Dog-mauled toddler learning to live again

8:50am Monday 2nd July 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards

TWO-year-old Keiron Guess is on the mend, just weeks after a savage dog attack.

Pictures of Keiron have been taken showing the scars left on his face from the attack four weeks ago.

The two-year-old underwent a 10-hour operation to reconstruct his face following the attack by a bull terrier-type dog in a neighbour’s garden.

The incident happened at Swanage Walk, Moredon, on Sunday, June 3, when the family returned from a trip to their local park.

Keiron and brother Mackenzie, four, followed their grandfather, who had been working on a bathroom in the house, out to the van when he got some tools.

Keiron wandered off, causing panic among his family who were alerted when a neighbour came out screaming that a dog had him.

He was only saved when his other grandfather Dave Guess pulled the dog off him. He suffered puncture wounds to his hands and arms in the process.

Keiron’s father Anthony, a scaffolder, said that at one point as doctors worked on Keiron, he and the toddler’s mother Stacey, feared the worst.

“We are still in shock,” he said. “It’s been hell and it still is – we didn’t know if he was going to live or die.

“At one point before the surgery they called us in to give him a kiss and say goodbye. It was one of the scariest moments of our lives.

“The doctors said they had never seen anything like it and that it was only one layer away from his skull – if the dog got through he could have been brain damaged.”

The family, who are staying with friends, are now waiting to be re-homed because the two boys are too scared to return to the house.

Stacey said: “Keiron just can’t get to sleep. He’s traumatised by dogs – he saw one on the telly while he was in hospital and he started crying.”

Speaking to a national newspaper about the attack, 25-year-old Anthony said: “I saw dad with Keiron cradled in his arms but it didn’t look like Keiron.

“I could see bubbles of red coming out of his face. His nose had gone. His face was ripped to shreds. It was like a horror film.”

Now at home the toddler, is eating and learning to walk again as the scars heal from the skin graft to his scalp and stitching to his face.

Surgeons had to use metal plates to reconstruct his left eye socket and nose.

He remains blind in his left eye and has been given a next-to-nothing chance of regaining sight in it.

A website has been set up to raise money for Keiron at www.keironguess.co.uk. A fun day is also being organised at the Boundary House pub on August 4.