A BABYSITTER has told how she feared she’d die when her friend’s Siberian husky dog savaged her in a brutal 45 minute attack.
Mum Rachel Anderson, 39, was looking after her pal Adel Johnson’s two kids last Boxing Day when dog Storm attacked.
The massive animal locked its jaws on her face, before pulling her to the floor and dragging her into the kitchen.
It savaged her arm for 45 minutes while mum-of-two Rachel screamed in agony, fearing she’d never make it out alive.
It was only when one of the children stabbed the hound with a knife on the counter she was able to get free — and call the police who shot the dog dead, she claims.
Former hairdresser Rachel needed nearly a dozen operations to repair the gaping wounds, and surgeons feared they’d have to amputate her arm, she claims.
But the limb was saved when medics sewed it inside her stomach for four weeks to get new skin to grow back.
Nearly a year on, police have dropped the case but Rachel can’t work and is still receiving treatment for her injuries, and unable to use her right hand properly.
Rachel, from Skegness, said: “There has to be some kind of recognition. If you have a guard dog, have a guard dog. This was supposed to be a pet.
“I could see blood everywhere. I could see my face out the corner of my eye. My arm was all ripped open. I could see skin and fat everywhere.
“It was sinking its teeth in, pulling me around, releasing it a bit to get a full grip again, letting me go to bite again.
“It was like I was a rag toy, moving its head back and forth.
“All I could see was this knife on the side, willing it to jump in to my hands. I tried to get towards it, to pull the dog with me. It wouldn’t move.
“It was like a horror film.”
Rachel and Adel met while working in a convenience store and she offered to look after her then-friend’s two kids so her mate could enjoy a night out, on December 26, last year.
She said when she’d visited Adel’s home in Rednal, Birmingham, before, the dog would be shut in the garden, but this time Storm was in the kitchen.
It was very surreal. I felt like it was settling down to chew down… I could see skin and fat everywhere.
Mum Rachel Anderson
It launched its attack when she went to get one of the children a drink at about midnight.
Rachel said: “The boy was jumping up and down on the settee and that’s the last thing I saw before it went for me.
“It was on my face. I screamed. I put my arm out to protect the little boy and next thing I knew the dog got a hold of my arm, and dragged me off the settee and into the kitchen where it attacked me for 45 minutes..
“It only bit me on the face once, and the rest was on my arm — moving up and down the same arm.
“It was very surreal. I felt like it was settling down to chew down.
“I didn’t want anyone to come home to a dead babysitter. What if it turned on the kids?”
“I was screaming for the kids to help me. In the end it got to the point where I shouted ‘do you want me to die here?’ “I told them ‘you need to come in and stab this dog’.”
The attack only stopped when one of the children grabbed a knife which was out of Rachel’s reach, and stabbed the dog in the back side, causing it to release its grip, she said.
The dog was thrown out into the garden by the young girl.
Rachel said she heard three gunshots when the police killed the dog, before she was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.
During nearly two months in hospital she had ten operations to clean the wound, stitch it up and carry out skin grafts.
She caught a severe infection which “ate” her arm muscle and had to take antibiotics for 12 weeks.
The skin grafts from the top of her arm refused to take, and doctors feared they’d have to amputate.
In a last ditch attempt to save the limb, surgeon Rajive Mathew Jose cut a flap in her stomach and sewed the arm inside for four weeks — to allow new unharmed skin to grow over the top.
She initially gave statements to the police but after 10 months was told the CPS didn’t want to progress the case because the dog was killed, she said.
West Midlands Police confirmed the case was closed, with no further action.
A spokeswoman said the decision was made by the CPS who felt “there was insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction”.
Adel said she did not want to comment.
