Nov 12, 2008 10:00 am US/Eastern
Texas Girl Survives Gruesome Pit Bull Attack
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBS) ―
Sunday morning in Keene, Texas 6-year-old Billie Jean Cain and her 10-year-old brother C.J. Cain were playing with other children at a tire swing near their house.
Nearby, a neighbor's pit bull dog broke from its chain and attacked Billie, grabbing her by the head and ripping off a 13-inch diameter section of her skull, reports CBS station KTVT-TV in Dallas.
Her brother had been playing "swords" with PVC pipes with some other boys who own the pit bull. When the pit bull broke loose, CJ hopped into the back of a pick up truck and threw his PVC pipe at the dog, which let go of Billie and ran off.
CJ went to tell his mother. When she found Billie, blood was running down the sides of her face. The mother, Sherry Jean Everhart, saw her daughter's scalp falling off her child's head and tried to hold it in place, but it fell.
The mother's cell phone wasn't working and she doesn't have a car. She says God told her to run to the highway. The first person she flagged down was Nathan Courtney, an off-duty paramedic from Godly.
Although he didn't have any of his tools, he was able to comfort the family as they waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Tuesday, she talked to him by phone, thanking him for his help.
The little girl has staples in her head and hospital officials say they don't know when she can be released from the hospital. She faces more surgeries in the year ahead.
But no one would be able to guess what had just happened to her just by seeing her Tuesday. She was energetic and happily playing in a plastic kitchen.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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