Cape Town - A 37-year-old Delft mother of five had to undergo surgery in Tygerberg Hospital after she was attacked by a Boerboel on Monday afternoon.
Aadilah Abrahams's left arm was broken in two places during the attack and she has several defence wounds on her right hand.
When the Cape Argus visited her on Wednesday at the hospital she was in “a lot of pain” after undergoing a two-and-a-half-hour operation.
Her left arm and hand were heavily bandaged and fitted with a metal external splint, a surgical treatment used to stabilise bone and soft tissue.
She said she was taking morphine injections to keep the pain at bay.
“I'm trying very hard not to think about it. That dog wanted to bite my head off. I fought with the dog for about 20 minutes… his teeth were locked into my flesh,” she said.
Abrahams said that she was walking down Canberra Street in The Hague, Delft on her way to a friend's house on Monday afternoon.
“Out of nowhere” she saw the Boerboel charging towards her. “I suddenly saw this big dog running towards me. I knew I was in danger. I started to run but I tripped on the stairs in front of a house and fell to the ground. I lifted my arm to protect my head and it bit into my arm and pulled, as if it wanted to rip it off. I started fighting with it.”
She said a neighbour then tried to run over the dog with his car to scare it off but it wouldn't let go. “I got up and tried to run away, he grabbed me again. I fell down and he kept coming for my head. He eventually let go after neighbours pulled him off… there was so much blood I thought my arm was going to come off,” said Abrahams.
City spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said the dog had been impounded by law enforcement and was being held at the Atlantis dog pound. “We are investigating the incident together with SAPS,” she said. Abrahams said the dog was chained but had broken free.
He then escaped through an open gate. She said the dog's owner Patrick Esau had promised to help with her hospital bills.
“My brother loves dogs and has a few pit bulls. I learnt from him how to fight with a dangerous dog, otherwise that dog would have killed me,” she said.
Cape Argus