Felicia Hambrick assumed it would be just another weekend of baby-sitting her best friend’s three children while her friend celebrated her wedding anniversary with her husband. Little did she realize she would be sacrificing her small 4’11” frame to protect the children from a pit bull gone berserk, the Daily Mail reports.
“I remember it hurting so bad that I was literally screaming, ‘I just want to die. Oh God, please let me die,'” the Tacoma, Washington woman said.
Hambrick, a recent Pacific Lutheran University graduate aspiring to be a medical technician at the very hospital that saved her life, said she had just finished breakfast and was holding baby Sophia when the family pit bull, Roscoe, walked out of the bedroom into the kitchen. The dog then jumped on Hambrick biting her legs, arms, stomach and neck. Roscoe jumped on Hambrick a second time after the children’s grandmother tried to pull the dog away, according to the report. A neighbor heard the screams and called 911.
“This is going to be the end of me,” Hambrick said in the News Tribune.
She fell unconscious in the ambulance and was hospitalized five days; she received 94 staples, and still must undergo months of reconstructive surgeries, skin graphs, muscular and tendon repair and physical therapy, according to the Daily Mail.
“Unfortunately, the most painful memory of all will be the constant reminder of seeing the 30-40 bites and gouges that cover her body which are now considered her battle scars,” Rachel Vaughan, Hambrick’s aunt, said on the family GoFundMe page. “My niece, who is blessed to have survived, is my little brave hero who will need her family and friend’s to surround her with love and support. Together we all can change this bad situation that happened to a sweet caring and helpful person into a positive outcome.”
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Roscoe has since been euthanized, and the friend’s family mourns the attack despite Hambrick’s assurances it was not their fault. The family said Roscoe has never displayed such behavior in the four months they had him.
“If I was home, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Cassy, the children’s mother and Hambrick’s best friend since their sophomore year at Mount Tacoma High School. “She’s my best friend. Because of me, her life is forever changed.”
Despite the tragedy, both Hambrick and her friend are thankful all parties survived.
“I’m so thankful for her,” Cassy said. “If the dog had gotten to my baby in any way, she could have died. I’m so thankful that Felicia took that and put it on herself instead of my baby.”
Click here to go to the family’s GoFundMe page if you would like to donate to Hambrick’s ongoing medical needs.
