Ear of Boy, Bitten Off, Swallowed by Dog, Reattached in 2-Hour Operation
Surgeons in West Covina Sunday re-attached a 7-year-old boy’s left ear after it had been bitten off--and swallowed--by a neighbor’s Doberman pinscher.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said the boy, Brandon Olivas, was semi-conscious and bleeding in his father’s arms when the officers arrived at the home in the 1390 block of Yvette Road in the community of Basset, near La Puente.
The boy’s father told deputies his son had been attacked by two dogs, a Doberman and a German shepherd, belonging to a neighbor. But he did not know which one had eaten the ear.
Paramedics took the child to Queen of the Valley Hospital, while county Animal Control Officer Debbie Leyva used a noose to capture both dogs. She took them to a nearby animal shelter, where they were killed by lethal injection.
The ear was found in the Doberman’s stomach. It was rushed to the hospital, where nursing supervisor Martha Eras said it was reattached in two hours of surgery.
Eras said it will be two weeks before results of the operation can be fully assessed, but by Sunday night the boy was in stable condition.
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