‘Help me, I’m dying’: Woman’s pit bull tries to eat her alive in violent attack

A woman who was violently attacked when her pet pit bull turned on her has said that at the time, “I thought I was going to die.” WARNING: Graphic.

WARNING: Graphic.

A US woman thought she was going to die when her pet of two years suddenly turned on her, tearing off “a good two-thirds” of her arm and eating her bicep.

On May 16, Tya Lucas was at home in Lewisville, Texas, introducing a new puppy, Roo, to her friend Peter when her nearly 45kg pit bull, Hercules, snapped, a Lewisville Police Department spokesperson told the New York Post.

“The puppy went to jump on the couch so I went to pick the puppy up – and my friend told him to get down,” Ms Lucas said.

That’s when Hercules lunged at Peter and sunk his teeth into his neck.

“The pit bull jumped on my friend’s neck and he started bleeding. I was like ‘What the f**k?’ He was latched onto the back of his neck,” Ms Lucas said.

The 41-year-old told Kennedy News she managed to pry the dog off her friend and shoved him into the safety of the bathroom.

Tya, 41, believed she was going to die but “fought somehow to stay alive” while her dog attacked her for several minutes. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

That’s when Hercules turned his aggression on Ms Lucas.

“He must have smelled [Peter’s] blood all over me and started attacking me. I don’t remember a lot of it. I remember looking down and my flesh being torn off my arm,” she said.

“I don’t remember the feeling of it. I remember screaming, ‘Hercules, it’s me.’”

The dog tore off two-thirds of Ms Lucas’s right arm, ate her bicep and sank its teeth into her leg and foot. She was screaming, ‘Help me, I’m dying,’ when her daughter, Tana, and her husband, Harley, rushed into the living room.

The pit bull went crazy and attacked Tya’s friend before turning his aggression on her. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

Tya truly believed she was going to die as Hercules continued to attack her and drag her around her home. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

“[Tana] saw the dog was trying to kill me. She reached out her hand to me and I tried to grab it but I missed her by inches,” Ms Lucas said.

“It grabbed on to my leg and dragged me further away. Her husband walked in and he beat the dog off of me. I don’t remember that part. I don’t know if I was passing out.”

Harley stepped in to wrestle the canine away from Ms Lucas and carry her outside, when Police Officer Jordan Potter arrived on the scene in response to Tana’s frantic 911 call.

“Officer Potter is very proud of the fact that he was able to save the woman’s life – but if you ask him, it was all just in the line of duty to serve and protect the residents of Lewisville,” Lewisville Police Department public information co-ordinator Matt Martucci told The Post.

“This was a pretty traumatic situation for this family [but his] actions kept it from being a deadly situation and provided a little comfort for the family.”

When Hercules was rescued, he was found covered in cigarette burns. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

“I don’t know how many times he bit me. I think it went on for about five minutes. I thought I was going to die. I fought somehow to stay alive,” Ms Lucas said.

“A good two-thirds of my arm was torn off. He ate my entire bicep.”

Officer Potter immediately began lifesaving measures.

“The police said if I’d passed out in the house, [Hercules] would have eaten me from my insides,” Ms Lucas said.

“They said they’d seen stabbings, gunshot wounds and they’ve never seen what they saw that day.

“They put a tourniquet on my arm and the doctor said if he hadn’t been there to do that at that exact moment, then I wouldn’t have made it until the ambulance got there.”

Tana and Harley had found Hercules abandoned at the side of the road, covered in cigarette burns, two years earlier.

But Ms Lucas said Hercules had never shown signs of aggression before and even slept in bed with her the night before the attack.

The dog tore off two-thirds of Tya’s right arm and ate her bicep as well as sinking its teeth into her leg and foot. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

Animal control officer Amanda Navarro was called to the scene and managed to use a tether pole to secure the dog.

Ms Lucas was rushed to the hospital, where she was put on a ventilator for two days. She stayed in the hospital for 19 days. She needed hundreds of stitches across her arm, leg and foot and five operations to cut the dead skin away.

She also underwent a sixth operation where a muscle in her back was rolled up into the shape of a bicep and attached to her arm.

“My arm bends a couple of inches but it’s stiff. My hand is really swollen, my wrist doesn’t move, there’s 15 inches [38cm] of nerves damaged, my nerves and tendons were crushed,” Ms Lucas said.

“For each inch that was damaged, it takes a month to come back. My wrist hangs there, I don’t have much use of my hand. I had staples in my leg and under my foot. I’m in constant pain.”

She underwent six operations and is now terrified of dogs after her near-death experience. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

Her medical bills are up to $180,000 but are expected to climb. Picture: Kennedy News and Media

She has set up a GoFundMe to cover her medical bills, which are currently at $US180,000 ($A260,000) but are expected to increase.

“I need physical therapy. The discount program is $100 a week, then there’s prescriptions. I don’t even know the total of the hospital bill yet,” Ms Lucas said.

She and her daughter surrendered Hercules to police at the scene and he was put down soon after. They have no idea what triggered the aggression but Ms Lucas has been left terrified of dogs.

“He was never aggressive before. I heard him bark one time when something made him jump,” she said.

“I’ve no idea why this happened. He slept in bed with us. I don’t know what triggered him.”

She noted that Hercules was beginning to display “food aggression” and since the attack she has begun to think about aspects of him that were changing and showing possible signs of his aggression.

Pit bulls are often a source of debate, with some insisting that the dogs are loveable and suitable pets while others note sometimes deadly levels of aggression.

In the US, pit bulls make up only 6 per cent of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68 per cent of dog attacks and 52 per cent of dog-related deaths since 1982, Time reported.

“I never had a problem with dogs, but now I’m terrified of them,” Ms Lucas said.

“I can’t go near dogs. If there’s one off a leash, I panic [like] I’m about to have an anxiety attack.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as ‘Help me, I’m dying’: Woman’s pit bull tries to eat her alive in violent attack