OH: Girl recovering from severe dog bite

OH: Girl recovering from severe dog bite

CHICAGO HEIGHTS (STNG) -- Sticking out through the tip of Girthamarie Gary's middle finger is a metal pin. Doctors inserted the pin, which travels the length of her entire finger, so that her finger will have a structure until the bone heals and the tissue inside her finger is able to grow back the right way.

The 15-year-old sophomore at Bloom High School has had the pin in her finger ever since a dog tore into her hand at 10 a.m. Nov. 21 at the corner of Lincoln Highway and Edgewood Avenue.

Catina Jones, 37, 1520 Edgewood Ave., was subsequently given a ticket for not having a city license for her dog, which is still around.

The day she was bit, Girthamarie was traveling from her home in the 400 block of Hickory Street to the Chicago Heights Public Library, 25 W. 15th St., she said.  She was walking with her little sister on a sidewalk along Lincoln Highway when she ran into Jones, who was walking her dog on a leash on the sidewalk.

Girthamarie said that when she walked past the dog, it bit her leg and hand. The attack lasted about five minutes. "It was horrible," she said. "The hand was bleeding and I couldn't feel anything."

When dog removed its teeth from her hand, she saw that the animal had bitten the tip off of her ring finger and left her middle finger hanging "by some tissue and some bone."

Following the bite, Girthamarie said the dog owner got frightened and ran off with her pooch, leaving the girl bleeding on the sidewalk.  "I hope they get the lady because she ran off and left her," Girthamarie's mother, Diane Beattie-Gary said. "She could have bled to death, she's just a kid."

Paramedics were called to the scene and she was transferred to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights and then to Munster Hospital in Indiana. She got hand surgery at the University of Chicago hospital and was released Nov. 25, she said.

Aside from having the pin sticking out of her finger, she has to wash her wounds every day, coat them in anti-bacterial cream and insulate her hand in a brown, gauzy wrap.  Most of the time she cannot feel the pin sticking out her hand - unless she accidentally bangs it against something else.

"When you bump it, there's an intense burning pain," she said, adding that the finger hurts when it gets exposed to cold weather.  Otherwise, her finger lacks all feeling. Girthamarie said the wrapped-up hand is an embarrassment and it keeps her from playing volleyball with her friends among other activities she used to enjoy.

In light of the attack, Girthamarie and her mom said they have contacted an attorney and plan to sue Jones for medical expenses.  Beattie-Gary also said she hoped the dog would be put down and that more charges would be filed against Jones.

On Wednesday, Jones denied that she or any of her family members were walking the dog Nov. 21. She said her two-year-old pit bull Star, which she keeps in her basement, is a gentle animal that would not maim another human.  "I have no clue who this person was," she said about the victim. "I have a big yard and a park across from my street. Why the hell would I walk my dog on Route 30?"

Furthermore, she said she learned about the biting for the first time when police contacted her, and that she has bought a city license for her dog after receiving her ticket.

Source: http://www.wbbm780.com/Girl-recovering-from-severe-dog-bite/5963121