A South Carolina woman woke up in shock after she discovered her arms had been amputated in a dog attack involving three pit bulls. According to her sister, the mom was so distraught over her condition that doctors decided to put her under sedation again. On March 21, Kyleen Waltman, 38, was critically injured when she was attacked by the dogs on a sidewalk in Honea Path northwest of Columbia.
After discharging his gun in the air, a man who witnessed Waltman being mauled was eventually able to scare the animals away. In addition to having her arms amputated, Waltman also lost part of her colon and may have to have a section of her esophagus removed, informed her sister Amy Wynne. Wynne described the harrowing moment when her sister woke up from a coma, via an update on GoFundMe.
“Kyleen has been fully woken up and the doctors told her about her arms but, it caused her a great deal of anxiety, so they sedated her,” she wrote.
“Her blood pressure is still very (SIC) and she is running a fever of 102+ her oxygen levels keep falling so she’s back on the ventilator.
Mama says it’s like she’s giving up. Before ya’ll go assuming we as her family are not giving up,” Wynne wrote.
“The lord has brought her this far for a reason. Her story is not done.
Now they have took off everything on the arms that now she can not have regular prosthetics. So here we are trying to figure out how to keep her from thinking negative thoughts about her life,” she continued.
“I understand that for 38 years she’s had arms and now she doesn’t, how she’s thinking. She’s still fighting.
Prayers are working and slowly she healing. We just have to wait and allow God and time to do their there,” the sister added. As of Tuesday morning over $170,000 had been collected through the fundraising site.
The State reported, that the owner of the dogs, Justin Minor, has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of owning a dangerous animal that attacked and injured a human, rabies control violation, and dangerous animal not permitted beyond premises unless restrained. He has been released on a $15,000 surety bond. A penalty of $5,000, or a sentence of three years behind bars, can be the result of the owning of a dangerous animal charge.
“It could’ve been prevented,” Wynne said. “If the dogs were locked up or if the dogs were chained up, or if they were never there to begin with, this would’ve never happened.”
In the wake of the attack, Abbeville County Animal control seized the dogs.
According to local media, it is not clear how the dogs ended up on the street. On Minor’s property “Beware of dog” signs are visible.