WVIR – LOUISA COUNTY, Va (WVIR) - A 4-year-old boy in Louisa County is lucky to be alive after a dog mauled him at a Memorial Day party. Sean Fitz has a long road to recovery, and his family is asking the community to help them cover his medical expenses.
The little boy always loved animals, until he was attacked by one.
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"His face had been taken off. His ear was gone. It had severed a lot of nerves in his face. He had to have a metal plate in his jaw where it was fractured and some staples as well," said Samantha Fitz, Sean's mother.
Sean had known the family's dog since he was a baby, but that didn't stop the dog from attacking him.
"I was going out the door and he bit me in the door," he said.
The toddler can't feel the physical pain because of nerve damage in his face, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
"Seeing him cry and one side of his face has tears coming down and you can see the emotion on one side of the face but the other side is completely blank," the mother said.
The recovery process has been difficult for the active boy.
"It's summertime, he can't go swimming, he can't go fishing. You know, when we take him outside we have to keep him out of direct sunlight to make sure the scarring won't get worse," Fitz said.
Sean's family makes the 40 minute drive to see specialists at the University of Virginia Medical Center three times a week, and bandages his ear morning, noon and night.
The family is raising money using a go-fund-me account to help with the costly medical expenses.
"It kills me to look at pictures and know that he's never going to look the way that he did before. I'm not going to have the same child that I had before," Fitz said.
The little boy won't ever fully recover from the physical and emotional damage from the attack, but the dog couldn't hurt his spirit. When Sean woke up from a nine-hour surgery, he said he was ready to go home and play.
The family's goal is to raise $10,000 for the toddler's care.