Myname is Carlos. Two days before Thanksgiving my fiancé , Erica, was attacked by our family dog, Beans. It was an unprovoked attack. We were up getting ready for work and Erica was scratching him on his neck in his favorite spot, which he was enjoying. She leaned over to kiss him and out of nowhere he started biting multiple times. There were several puncture wounds from his fangs and he managed to rip the entire right side of her nose off.

I immediately rushed her to the emergency room. After the surgeon looked at Erica he let us know that there was only one option because of the severity of the damage. A FOREHEAD FLAP PROCEDURE. It is a minimum two part surgery. The first part consisted of the surgeon taking cartilage from Erica's left ear to put in her nose. Then he peeled down a 3 inch flap from her forehead and sutured it to her nose to replace the lost soft tissue. The flap is still connected to her forehead. They do this because the skin has a better chance of fusing to live skin cells as opposed to a skin graft that is completely removed prior to suturing. The next step will be in a few weeks. The surgeon will clamp off the blood flow between the nose and the forehead. The surgeon needs to be 100% sure the tissue is fusing correctly and that the nose is circulating blood on it's own. Once we are absolutely sure it is fusing properly, we can begin the second part of the surgery. He will then cut the excess flap from the forehead and nose and then start the reconstruction surgery. Most likely Erica may need a third surgery later this year but first she must recover

from the first two. This has been traumatic for Erica. Not to mention the emotional effects it has had on her. She is having a hard time going out and doing everyday activities because of the awful looks, insensitive comments, and pointing from people. The uncertainty of knowing if this will be something she will be experiencing for the rest of her life is probably  the worst. To make things even worse, now Inhave to try to explain, to the best of my ability, to my 11 year old stepdaughter why Beans did this to mommy and why Beans is no longer at home. Beans is now in the custody of animal control.Erica has filed for FMLA from work because she will not be able to work for about 1 1/2 to 2 months. Although the FMLA will protect Erica from losing her job, it will not pay for her missed time from work. In the meantime life still goes on and the mortgage, car payments, bills, etc still need to be paid plus the huge medical bills to come. We are extremely grateful because this could have turned out SO MUCH WORSE. We are asking anybody for help right now with the medical expenses.  Anything will be immensely appreciated!