The experience dogsitter was attacked by two dogs in 2021
An inspirational young woman has shown off the miraculous results of her facial reconstructive surgery, after she suffered a horrific dog attack while she was dogsitting.
Jacqueline Durand, from Texas, describes herself as a “survivor” after her face was torn off by two rescue dogs she’d been asked to look after in 2021.
Since the traumatic attack, she has undergone remarkable facial surgery.
When Jacqueline was 21, she was looking after two rescue dogs – Bender, a boxer and pitbull mix, and Lucy, a German Shepherd mix.
The experienced dogsitter had already met both animals and got on well with them, but said she had never experienced anything like the change in temperament that took place between the ‘meet and greet’ with the dogs and when she arrived at their owners’ home on the day of the attack.
Their owners Justin and Ashley Bishop, promised that the animals would be restrained but this wasn’t the case when she arrived at their home.
The animals suddenly turned on her, dragging her in the house and ripping off her nose, ears, lips and cheeks.
Durand told CBS she thought she was “going to die” during the attack.
An alarm triggered by the front door being left open meant that police arrived to help her.
But it still took them a staggering 37 minutes to rescue Durand, who lost a significant amount of blood.
The dogs were subsequently destroyed, and Durant sued their owners for negligence.
Over the last year, she has shared her recovery from the ordeal and the reconstructive surgery she has undergone.
She hopes her story won’t just help raise awareness of dangerous dogs, but inspire other people as she has remained positive despite her ordeal.
“I didn’t ask for this, so I think that it’s time to show who I am now and I can’t be scared of it,” she said.
“I want for dog owners to know their animals and be able to communicate with their sitters how they are.”
Durand explained that she had surgery to help her skin grow back and while she still has a long road ahead of her, doctors have said that she is unlikely to need a face transplant.
She admitted that she thought her boyfriend would leave her because of the effect the accident had on her face, but he assured her wasn’t going anywhere.
“I was skeptical if he was going to stay with me,” she said in an Instagram Live.
“I asked him straight up, ‘do you still want to be with me? I’ve changed forever’, and he said ‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else’.”
And Durant’s love of dogs still remains despite everything she has gone through, and the University of Texas student hopes to work with the animals in the future.
She is still not ready to work with German Shepherds and Pit Bulls though, as they still give her flashbacks to the harrowing events of the attack.
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