MELBOURNE, FL (WESH/CNN) - Shaken and still in shock, Mary Lamanna can't believe her dog viciously attacked a four-year-old girl, a child she regularly babysits.
"That baby was like a child to me. It was like my own child, OK? I took care of her," Lamanna said.
So, to see her taken out of the home on a stretcher and airlifted to Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, FL, is heartbreaking.
"The baby did not deserve what she got," Lamanna said.
Melbourne police say the girl suffered serious puncture wounds all over her body.
It happened Thursday afternoon inside of a mobile home on Rolling Rock Drive. Mary Lamanna's elderly mother was caring for the child as she left to drop off food for her husband.
At first, Vivian Lamanna says the girl and dog were playing. But the dog turned quickly.
The little girl tried to push the pit bull away.
"He just got real angry I guess because she was kicking him with the other foot and he grabbed her leg and she wound up on the floor," Vivian Lamanna said.
Vivian Lamanna says she had no choice but to push the dog away to protect the child. She too was bitten multiple times.
As police and first responders arrived, they found three dogs inside the home.
Mary Lamanna says it's a shame that all three will be euthanized but right now is grateful the child she constantly cares for will be OK.
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