Gilroy – Yvonne Hyatt saved her dog’s life, but in the process nearly died.
She was walking her dog about a block from her Summerhill Circle home the night of June 3, 2001 when she was brutally attacked by a neighbor’s pit bull.
“I was walking my shelty (Hope) and out of the corner of my eye I saw something charging towards me,” said Hyatt.
Coming at her was the pit bull, who first attacked Hope.
The pit bull immediately started to clamp down on Hope’s leg, leaving the dog with shattered bones and huge wounds that instantly bled profusely. In a natural instinct to protect her dog, Hyatt reached to pull the dog away from the jaws of the pit bull.
“When you love your dog, like you love any member of your family, you care about them and want to protect them from being killed or mutilated by a vicious animal,” said Hyatt of her reaction.
When she leaned down to protect her dog, the pit bull instantly turned on Hyatt, biting and tearing open her lower right arm above the wrist.
“I was screaming at the top off my lungs. ‘Someone please help us,’ ” Hyatt, 39, said, fighting back tears at the memory.
Seconds later, neighbors heard her pleas for help and rushed to her aide. In an attempt to save her life, a neighbor grabbed a broomstick and began beating the dog over the head, which did nothing.
Another man began punching the dog repeatedly in the face, but the pit bull did not let go. It was not until another neighbor beat the dog with a hammer that it stopped attacking the Gilroy woman.
“I remember very little of what actually happened during the attack,” she said. “I know bits and pieces of it, but some information was told to me by neighbors. All I know is that my neighbors saved my life. If it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here. They’re heroes.”
One of Hyatt’s neighbors, a nurse, rapped a belt around her arm and held it above Hyatt’s head to prevent her from bleeding to death. Hyatt had lacerations down to the bone.
After being rushed to the emergency room at Kaiser in San Jose, she received 68 stitches above her wrist. Doctors told her that had the dog’s jaw remained clamped to her arm any longer, she would probably have lost her life, because it had just missed a main artery.
Her husband Chris, who was away on a business trip, rushed to be by his wife’s side.
“I walked into her hospital room and her clothes were covered in blood,” her husband said. “It was a horrible sight.”
Hyatt, a 3rd grade teacher at Nordstrom Elementary School in Morgan Hill, was placed in the intensive care unit at Kaiser to monitor her progress.
She gradually recovered physically, but the emotional distress lasted much longer. She underwent psychological therapy after the attack.
“I had to make myself walk my dog after the incident. I told myself, I have to get over this,” said Hyatt. For the first year after the accident, she carried a baseball bat with her when walking her dog.
As for Hope, her leg had been torn to almost nothing so a metal plate was inserted to help her walk. Veterinarians said that the dog’s leg may have to be amputated but luckily for Hope, her injury healed after extensive surgery and she can now walk. Unfortunately, the dog suffers from panic attacks and has a hard time socializing with other dogs since the accident, Hyatt said.
The female pit bull that attacked Hyatt was placed in a shelter and kept under quarantine for 72 hours then released to it’s owner, who decided to put the dog down.
“You can choose to look at the negative or the positive,” said Chris, “We hope that someone that reads this story will take it to heart, and regardless of the breed their dog is, keep them on a leash. It only takes one mistake to alter someone’s life.”
The couple now has a son, Curtis, who is 10 months old.
By Lauren Jones Special to The Dispatch
