'I thought I would die': Dog attack victim's fight for survival using a child's toy

WARNING: Some people may find this story upsetting.

Bridget Quartermain heard her bone crunch as she used a child's plastic trike to try to fend off a frenzied dog with its jaws locked onto her lower leg.

Alone in the lounge of her friend's Christchurch Christchurch, the 32-year-old could see her blood around the muzzle of the white dog, as she screamed for help.

"I thought I was going to die," she told Stuff while fighting back tears.

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Nearly a week on from the savage attack, which ended when police shot the dog twice, Quartermain remains in hospital, and has months of recovery ahead of her.

She has a broken leg and a broken hand, and has undergone multiple surgeries to repair several gaping bite wounds.

Quartermain said that on Wednesday last week, she and her three-year-old rescue dog, Zeppelin, who rarely left her side, went to visit her friend at her home in Truman Rd, Bryndwr.

Two dogs lived at the Kāinga Ora-owned property - Cocaine and Cruz. Zeppelin got on well with Cocaine, but not Cruz.

Quartermain said she messaged her friend before she arrived to make sure Cruz was locked away in the backyard.

However, after several hours, Cruz somehow got into the house, and he and Zeppelin began fighting.

After Quartermain grabbed her dog, and wrapped her arms around him, Cruz attacked her, latching onto the back of her left leg.

"Help me, help me," she cried out.

But rather than coming to her aide, Quartermain claimed her friend inexplicably fled outside, a claim the friend vehemently denies.

"When I was left alone, I didn't know what the f– I was going to do. I was calling for help. I was saying 'no Cruz' ... but he just lock-jawed on me."

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Quartermain said she punched the dog, and used a child's trike in defence as she tried desperately to escape his grasp.

She even put her right hand inside Cruz's mouth to try and get him to let go.

"I just couldn't get him off."

As blood drained from the bite wounds on Quartermain's leg, she became weak.

"I could hear all my bones going [crunch]. I was like f--- my life, I'm going to die, this is it."

But neighbours heard Quartermain screaming and someone called the police. A teenager who lived nearby soon arrived and tried unsuccessfully to stop the attack using a road cone.

When officers appeared at the entrance to the lounge a short time later, about 6pm, Quartermain's blood was smeared on the walls, and Cruz was still mauling her.

"They said something about having to shoot him, and I was like please shoot him. I was just so scared.

"As soon as the second shot happened, and I felt the pressure release ... that's when I just blacked out."

Speaking from her hospital bed on Monday, Quartermain, a self-described animal lover, said she was devastated that Cruz was shot, but the police officers who attended were left with little choice.

She's upset at reports suggesting she'd turned up to the property with Zeppelin unannounced, was somehow to blame for the attack, and wasn't badly injured.

"All this stuff I keep hearing that I wasn't invited ... that's bullshit.

"If [my friend] had stayed and helped, the situation would have been much different. I've seen her control him (Cruz) before. All she needed to do was assert her dominance. Any animal will listen to the alpha. It made no sense to me that she left."

Quartermain said Cruz's owner, a gang member who wasn't at the property when she was attacked, had visited her in hospital and apologised for what had happened.

"We sat together, and we cried, and we looked at photos of Cruz."

She had not heard from her friend since the incident.

The woman told Stuff she disputed some of Quartermain's account.

She said that she did everything in her power to try and stop the attack, including punching and wrestling Cruz. When she couldn't, she left the house to try and get help. "What was I supposed to do, sit there and watch him kill her?"

The woman said she believed Quartermain provoked the attack, as Cruz in her words "may look scary, but ... at heart he's a big baby".

"It shocked me. I've never seen [Cruz] act like that in my life."

Although not in the house when police arrived, the woman said witnesses had told her Cruz was not biting Quartermain when the dog was shot. She believed non-lethal methods could have been used to defuse the situation.

The woman said she hadn't contacted Quartermain since the incident because she blamed her for Cruz's death. "[Zeppelin and Cruz] had already had fights. She shouldn't have brought him around."

However, after learning of the extent of her injuries from Stuff, she said she planned to reach out to her.

Quartermain, a Type-1 diabetic, has no idea when she will be released from hospital.

Her left leg is broken just below the knee, while her right hand - the one she put inside Cruz's mouth - is also fractured.

Quartermain said her dog Zeppelin, who suffered two puncture wounds to one of his legs, was being looked after by her mother and sister.

On Wednesday, Sergeant Aaron Campbell said Cruz was still biting Quartermain when officers arrived at the Truman Rd property, and immediate action was required to save her life.

The officers assessed the situation and made the difficult decision to shoot the dog to "ensure the threat was neutralised".

Campbell said inquiries were ongoing, and it was too early to say if any charges would be laid.

This article originally appeared on Stuff and is republished here with permission.