Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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Martinsville, Virginia 24115
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| Further surgery ahead for Gravely |
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Friday, March 12, 2010
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Mary Gravely still is having trouble sleeping at night.
The 78-year-old woman suffered severe dog bites Monday while walking on a road near her Axton home, police have said.
Carl Hodge, Gravely’s nephew, said her good physical shape is helping her handle her wounds and stress from Monday’s incident.
He added that she had an incident last summer involving the same dog.
Henry County Sheriff’s Lt. Ricky Walker said reports from that incident indicate the dog “snapped or nipped” at Gravely. “It is my understanding it did not make contact with her at that time,” Walker said.
After that incident, police had learned that the dog’s owner planned to move to another location, Walker said. Officers were not aware that the dog moved back to Hobson Road, he added.
On Monday, Gravely, of Atmore Drive in Axton, was walking on Hobson Road when the mother of the dog’s owner was taking the animal from a dog run behind the home on Hobson Road into the house, police have said.
The woman was holding the dog by its collar when it got loose at the time Gravely walked alongside the road, police have said.
Gravely suffered severe lacerations to her left leg, both forearms and her face, police have said.
Hodge said a neighbor near where the incident occurred summoned him. “The ambulance was already there” when Hodge arrived at the scene, he said.
His aunt was taken to the Memorial Hospital in Martinsville and then to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., Hodge said.
“They did surgery” at the medical center, he said. Gravely still has to undergo reconstructive surgery on her face and lips, which were damaged during the incident, he said.
Gravely has stitches around her wrists and above an eye, he said. She takes pills for the pain and also is on an antibiotic to prevent infection, Hodge said.
State law required the dog, a pit bull/Dalmatian mix, to be quarantined for 10 days, Walker said.
“We can’t do anything with it until that quarantine period is over,” he said. Then, unless the owner contests it, the dog will be put down.
Based on what he has heard from officers assigned to the animal control unit, Walker said the owner does not plan to contest the action.
Hodge said the dog’s owner stopped by to check on his aunt and told them that the dog would be put down.
Perhaps that will help her relax, he said.
For now, “she’s still not resting much,” Hodge said. It also will take a while for Gravely to “heal because of how deep the puncture wounds are.”
The dog’s owner, Brandon Dishman, 26, 2226 Hobson Road, Axton, was charged with misdemeanor counts of no vaccination record and no Henry County license in connection with the incident, police said. |
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