'She acted like a mother': Lethbridge teen praised after saving boy from pit bull attack
CBC
The mother of an eight-year-old Lethbridge boy who was attacked by a pit bull in a school yard is praising the actions of a 17-year-old summer camp counsellor who may have saved the child's life.
On Wednesday, two pit bulls were running loose in a playground when one targeted the boy, biting him in the face, ear and knee before the teen intervened, according to Lethbridge police.
The girl, employed by the YWCA, was also bitten by the dog as she tried to protect the boy.
"She acted like a mother," said Sayma Refat, whose son Saihan has been released from hospital.
"This girl, she is not our relative, she is not our family, but she protected my son."
Refat called the girl an "angel" and teared up at the thought of what could have happened had the counsellor not intervened.
The staff member was taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.
"We are proud and grateful of the quick-thinking response by our staff yesterday," said Jill Young, CEO of the Lethbridge YWCA.
The attack happened around noon on Wednesday, at the end of the YWCA day camp's morning session.
Refat says she was waiting for her son around noon when she and other parents learned a child had been attacked by a dog in the Dr. Gerald B. Probe Elementary schoolyard.
Twenty minutes later, she got a call that it was Saihan who had been injured.
The boy's father rushed to the hospital to be by his side. Saihan needed stitches for the wounds to his face.
"He's traumatized," said Refat. "I am traumatized."
Back at the school, one of the dogs was found with its owner.