At her own gate, in front of her own Oakland Hills home one week ago, international health expert, Peg Jordan was attacked by a neighbor's vicious dog - an Italian mastiff - a chillingly similar incident to the attack that killed a woman in San Francisco. After enduring excruciating pain, a raging infection and almost a week in the hospital Jordan feels fortunate to be alive. She is also concerned that no one else endures such an incident. She is embarking on a campaign to educate people about these vicious attacks and intends to work toward creating public health policy to assure that the public's safety comes first.
Interviewed on Good Morning America, and other national television shows about this incident, Jordan, known as the Global Medicine Hunter is a medical anthropologist, registered nurse and health journalist. She said, “I’ve done fieldwork where jackals howl all night looking for prey, and snow leopards roam, and where the number one cause of death is snakebite. I survived all that, and the ironic twist is that I’m almost mauled to death in front of my own home."
As her healing process begins, Jordan feels compelled to use her professional voice to create community dialogue and change about how to handle a personal incident and how to make sure the public is protected through legislation and policy.
The essential points she would like people to be aware of are:
First of all, Protect Yourself:
If you find yourself in a threatening situation with a vicious dog, protect your throat. These animals kill by ripping out their prey's thorax. "If I had not protected myself with my arm, I would not be alive to convey this information." You Are Obligated to Stop Further Incidents:
Make sure that your emergency healthcare provider reports this incident to the authorities. There are 4.7 million dog bites reported each year in the United States. One million people need medical attention due to these attacks. In some cases, such as the recent Whipple tragedy in San Francisco, dogs had previous incidents of violence but they were not reported.
You have an obligation to stop the dog from attacking others. Insist that medical personnel alert Animal Control services and make a Police report about the attack. Don't bypass the system. 911 will put it into play. Explore Your Options:
Explore your options to get the support from agencies that know the county and state laws. There are usually laws to protect you against vicious dogs in your neighborhoods. Owners of these animals must license them as such, and take special precautions such as locked enclosures and putting on muzzles when out of their enclosures. Post Traumatic Stress Help
It's important that you seek support from friends and family. Have a friend or loved one serve as your advocate and help you with all this.
Know that you are in a posttraumatic state, and your thinking may not be clear for a few days. Mine wasn't. There are therapy techniques such as Thought Field, Emotional Freedom Release and EMDR (eye movement desensitization release) that can help you stop the repetitive nightmare or image of the attack from repeating in your mind. Realize That It is Not Your Fault
Listening to the owners of the dogs rationalize the dog's behavior is very troubling in the acute stage. But it's an automatic tendency on their parts. You may hear things like you dangled car keys or he thought you were a dog, or like the victim hours before me, maybe you were wearing perfume with pheromones. Don't subject yourself to that. What happened to you shouldn't happen to anyone. There's no excuse to have lethal four-legged weapons wander freely in your neighborhood. "Finally, for my own healing process, I asked myself this question, 'How can I help build a better world through this incident,'" said Jordan. "The answer became clear that it was to set my current projects aside and help raise awareness about this public safety issue. For me, that's the ultimate healing."
Background on Jordan's Incident:
Jordan was leaving her home at about 1:30 PM when she saw her neighbor across the street with his dog. She had just read the story about the woman who was killed by a vicious dog in San Francisco and as she came out of her gate - she saw that the neighbor's dog was focused on her. Her neighbor assured her of her safety. The next thing she heard was the sound of her own screams as the dog bolted across the street lunging at her throat.
"If I didn't raise my arm to shield my throat, I do not believe I would have survived," said Jordan.
The dog bit so deeply into her right forearm that the two sets of teeth met close to the bone. She needed twenty shots of novocaine just so that the doctors could touch her arm. After the dog bit her arm, the dog smashed her against her front gate and clawed at her back until the owner got the animal to stop by kicking it multiple times.
"The public has the right to walk down the street or come out of their own front yard without fearing a vicious dog is going to attack them," said Jordan.
