Mauled Boy Making Good Recovery
www.hernandotoday.com
By CLIFF HIGHTOWER
Oct 23, 2004, SPRING HILL, FLORIDA - The nightmares were waiting for him when he first came home. He woke up in the middle of the night, screaming. His mother and his father consoled him. Everything will be okay. The 5-year-old boy saw counselors. Even his twin sister, who saw the whole event, but has never breathed a word about it, went to counseling.
They were told that no one knows if there would be psychological damage to the children.
Only time will tell.
"There's a lot of tension," said Cheri Kennedy, the mother of the children. "You want to blame someone, but there's nobody to blame. An animal's responsible."
It has been 8 months since a German shepherd and Chow mix mauled Jacob Kennedy while he played in the back yard. Within eight months, the small boy has undergone five reconstructive surgeries and more than $500,000 in medical bills. It has been eight months of trying to find out if someone is accountable for what happened to their only son, only to find that there's no one who can be blamed. The only blame can be pointed at a dog in a neighbor's back yard.
Jacob and his twin sister, Samantha, 5, were outside playing in the back yard. For several weeks their dog, a 4-year-old full-blooded Chow, and the neighbor's dog, a 14-year-old mix had been digging a hole in the fence to get at each other, Cheri Kennedy said. Jacob's father, Mike Kennedy, filled up the holes and they thought their children were safe. Looking back, Mike Kennedy said he was always more concerned his children would get into the neighbor's pool rather than being attacked by their dog. "Ever since we moved here, I always told him to stay away from that fence," Mike Kennedy said. "Don't go near that fence."
The family chained up their dog to keep him from digging, they said. So Jacob and Samantha were outside playing on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 17. Police reports later said Jacob went through some loose planks in the wooden fence that surrounds their back yard. Cheri Kennedy says that isn't so. She said there would be no way that her son could have fit through the 4-inch planks and the planks weren't loose before the dog grabbed her son.
The planks were torn up because she ripped them apart in an effort to get to Jacob, she said.
Somehow through the loose dirt, the dog was able get underneath the fence, she said. Samantha was standing nearby, watching the entire scene unfold. She couldn't speak. She couldn't scream. Cheri Kennedy walked outside, and she saw something she would never forget her entire life. The jaws of the dog were wrapped around the head of her 5-year-old boy.
"When I looked through I saw the dog on top of him, mauling him," she said. "So I ripped the pickets out of the fence." She tried hitting the dog, and poking at it in an attempt to get the mixed breed to let go of Jacob. She said she didn't want to try to grab her son for fear the dog might damage him further. "The dog wouldn't let go of him," Cheri Kennedy said. Her neighbor ran outside and was finally able to pry the dog's mouth open. Paramedics with Spring Hill Fire Rescue showed up. The family credits the department for saving Jacob's life.
He was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg and was transferred to All Children's Hospital. He spent 21 days in the hospital, Cheri Kennedy said, and underwent his five reconstructive surgeries. The little boy was in shambles when he first arrived. Jacob had a skull fracture, both ears were detached, his jaw was wired shut and he required more than 300 stitches in his face, his mother said.
But a surgeon at the hospital took the child under his care and put Jacob together again, surgery by surgery. "I thought my son would never look like my son again," Cheri Kennedy said. But after the surgeries and the healing, Jacob is looking like Jacob again. Now it is time for a healing of the heart. "I never expected him to look as good as he did after seven months," Cheri Kennedy said.
After Jacob was mauled, the neighbor assured the family that the homeowner's insurance would take care of the medical costs. But it never did, Cheri Kennedy said. The family was offered $2,000 by the insurance company. The Kennedy family said they spoke to three lawyers in an effort to file a lawsuit against the woman's insurance company. But they found they were unable to bring a lawsuit because of a clause that said the insurance company is not liable for pets and the homeowner is held liable.
After 10 days, the dog was euthanized, Cheri Kennedy said. But she says the county left the decision up to the neighbor, which still angers her. "They were actually going to let her have her dog back if she wanted," she said. "That was unbelievable."
Police reports said Jacob and the dog played together and the dog knew the boy. But Cheri Kennedy denies that. She said no neighborhood kids ever played with the dog. "Nobody played with the dog," she said. "That dog was unapproachable."
They left the decision up to Jacob on whether or not he would keep his own pet dog. But the boy told his parents he wanted it. When the suggestion of getting rid of the Chow came up, Cheri Kennedy said, Jacob was at first hurt, thinking it was punishment. When Jacob came home, his mother and father at first were apprehensive about him playing with the Chow. Cheri said at times she became panic-stricken. The 5-year-old was apprehensive at first himself.
And there are still some lasting effects. Sometimes Jacobs gets jumpy. Cheri Kennedy said another neighbor has a big Labrador and when the dog comes running, Jacob jumps. The 5-year-old is back at school, attending kindergarten at J.D. Floyd Elementary School. But there are still the questions about how it will affect Jacob, as he grows older. There are questions about how other children will treat him when he gets to age where he can go to middle school and high school. "They say he's going to have a rough time," Cheri Kennedy said.
Right now, though, the boy is not worried about what others think. He's too busy being Jake. He runs around the house, blowing a whistle, climbing on top of bookshelves, until his mother tells him to get down. But his twin sister, Samantha, who saw the whole thing still won't speak about what happened that morning. She won't say a word. Cheri Kennedy said counselors say the little girl deals with it in her own way. Only time will tell.
"I was concerned how she could see something like that and not react to it," Cheri Kennedy said. The family has lived in the house for two years now. Since Jacob was mauled, it has been uncomfortable staying there, but they can't move. All their neighbors know what happened at the home eight months ago. "We just have to stick it out," Cheri Kennedy said.
Besides Jacob and Samantha, they also have 7-year-old Mykala. "Nobody's accountable," Cheri Kennedy says. "And that's what angers me. Nobody is accountable." But only time will tell.
