Attack in Spain: 'A dog ripped my mouth open and it’s ruining my life'

The attack by a dog that changed Nuria's life lasted barely two seconds. It happened on 6 February 2023. This resident of Barakaldo, Bilbao, in northern Spain, was talking to some friends when the dog lunged at her face, giving her no time to react. She thinks that maybe her neighbour's dog attacked her out of "jealousy", because she was not paying attention to it. First it bit her nose and then her mouth, tearing off a piece of her lip and her gum.

When her friends managed to get the dog off her, Nuria could only see a large pool of blood around her. Her friends wouldn't let her go to the bathroom because they didn't want her to see that her lip was "hanging off". She was taken to hospital and underwent emergency surgery to try to rebuild her mouth. After the operation, a doctor warned her that the injuries were very serious and could have lasting consequences.

At first, the woman thought the doctor might be exaggerating. But the facts ended up "proving to be right". The injury to her mouth - she explains - means living with pain 24 hours a day, every day of the week. "It itches, it stings, it burns," she says.

What she could not have imagined was that the worst was yet to come. She got a bacterium as a result of the attack that started eating her bones. A year ago, she had to have all her teeth removed, and has since undergone several operations and has several more to go.

Nuria has lost ten kilos since then. She makes no secret of the fact that she is unwell, "sad" and "broken". She spent months without being able to kiss her husband. She basically feeds herself on purées, yoghurts and fresh cheese. She was a person who "was always laughing". And now she can't help crying when she looks in the mirror. She has even had an episode where she has tried to hurt herself. "I'm 53 years old and I look like a little old lady," she says.

She is trying hard to recover her former life. To a large extent, the key is to have her mouth reconstructed. She has not stopped spending money since the attack - also on private psychologists - because many of the treatments she needs are not covered by the public health system. She estimates that he has already spent around 6,000 euros.

The problem is that they can no longer afford to pay any more money out of their own pockets and have run up against the dog's owner's insurance company, which refuses to advance the money for the bone graft operations until the entire treatment is completed. Nuria underwent a first maxillofacial operation last June, for which she already owes around 14,000 euros. And now she has to face another operation for another 16,000 euros. In other words, before January she has to pay some 30,000 euros, which she does not have. She is a pensioner due to a work-related injury. Her husband works, but they have a mortgage that "suffocates" them and a daughter who is studying. They could take out a loan, but they can't live in such a situation.

Nuria has asked the insurance company for solutions, but they do not reply to her letters. "It's not fair. I just want a solution to something I didn't cause," she says.