“I wasn’t able to stand up because my leg was basically hanging off,” Amanda Mears recalled of the Dec. 10 incident

Amanda Mears after her family dog attacked her.Credit :

A Tennessee mom is adjusting to life after having one of her legs amputated following a dog attack at her home.

On Dec. 10, Amanda Mears was preparing to take her dog, Dennis, out for a walk when she noticed that her rescue dog, named Ralphie, had seemingly escaped from the bedroom where she kept him.

Before she knew it, Dennis, a mixed American Pitbull and American Staffordshire Terrier, began to attack Ralphie, an American Bully, UK newspaper The Mirror reported. Mears, 42, recalled that Dennis lunged forward to attack Ralphie, but ended up clamping onto her leg instead.

“When he charged at my other dog, Ralphie, I got in between them, and that’s when Dennis latched on to my leg and would not let go,” she told the outlet. “I was a bit scared, but I’ve broken up dog fights before, and I didn’t feel any pain because of the adrenaline.

Amanda Mears.gofundme

“I ended up having to hook my right leg and my arms around him and choked him out to get him off of me,” she continued. “He also bit my left hand and crushed the bone in my right arm, but I don’t think I even realised at the time.”

Mears instructed her 10-year-old son to stay in his room while she attempted to open the dog’s jaws and called emergency services, per The Mirror. By the time she was able to strangle the Pitbull mix off of her leg, she noted that it was “hanging on by a thread.”

“I wasn’t able to stand up because my leg was basically hanging off,” she told the outlet. “I decided to have my leg amputated because to save my leg, I’d have had to have 12 more surgeries over the next two years and I would be in constant pain.”

A friend of Mears’ recently shared on a GoFundMe that the healthcare worker has been discharged from the hospital and is “preparing for prosthetic fitment.” She is also “up and mobile with help to use the restroom.”

Mears said in an update shared on Facebook on Dec. 29, that she has been navigating her return to work while figuring out how to accommodate the significant injuries to her right hand.

Amanda Mears.gofundme

“The house is getting easier by the day,” she wrote. “I’m still not able to go outside on my own. I have to have the assistance of another adult person to be able to get up and down my stairs.”

Mears revealed to The Mirror that she’s decided to euthanize Dennis following the attack to ensure the safety of her son.

“Dennis has always been the sweetest dog; he’d never been aggressive before,” she told the outlet, adding, “I decided to have Dennis put down, which was hard.

“He was my best friend, and I raised him from two weeks old. It was a decision that hurt, but it was not a difficult decision,” she concluded.