Pregnant Woman Left Severely Injured After Dog Attack While Protecting Her Unborn Twins

A pregnant Kansas woman suffered devastating facial injuries after she was mauled by a pit bull while desperately trying to protect the twins she was carrying.

Audrey Suarez was walking through the Highland Park Townhomes apartment complex in Topeka on July 17 when the dog suddenly attacked her. She was 24 weeks pregnant with twins at the time, according to WIBW 13 News.

Police said the terrifying incident unfolded after a fight broke out between three people in the area. During the altercation, the 6-year-old son of one of those involved reportedly let two dogs outside, and one of them attacked Suarez.

“She’s walking to my cousin’s house and then I guess they were having a fight or something over there,” Suarez’s boyfriend, C.J. Austin, told WIBW. “Her face was hanging off. It was horrible.”

Suarez survived the attack, and her unborn babies were not physically harmed. However, she was left with severe injuries to her face and hand.

Austin said Suarez broke her pinky while trying to shield her stomach from the dog.

“When the dog was attacking her, all she could think about was covering her stomach, so the dog wouldn’t get to her stomach and hurt the twins,” he said.

A man who rushed in to help also suffered minor injuries while trying to pull the dog away from Suarez.

“If it wasn’t for the gentleman — our friend who stepped in — he said the dogs would have killed her,” Austin recalled.

Suarez later underwent a grueling 10-hour surgery to repair the damage to her face, followed by another four-hour operation on her eye, which doctors feared she could lose.

A GoFundMe created to help cover her medical expenses has raised more than $2,000.

Police shot and killed the dog after it allegedly became aggressive toward an officer at the scene. The second dog was taken into the custody of Animal Control.

The dogs’ owner, whose name has not been released, claimed the animals were trying to protect her young son while she was being attacked by two people involved in the fight.

“Those dogs weren’t doing any harm,” she told WIBW. “They were protecting my 6-year-old son while they were jumping me and ain’t nobody else helping me.”

The Topeka Police Department continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Austin said the ordeal has left Suarez with emotional trauma that may remain long after her physical injuries begin to heal.

“You just mess somebody’s whole life up,” he said. “She’s going to be scarred for the rest of her life. She has nightmares of that dog attacking her. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming.”