Heroes halt savage dog attack on OAP

Sean McMahon

Published: Fri 21 Jun 2019, 4:30 PM

Last updated: Fri 21 Jun 2019, 5:09 PM

A local postwoman who helped save an elderly farmer from being savagely mauled by a dog last week says she would have “died that day to save that man’s life – by whatever means possible, I was going to get that dog off that man”.

Catherine Farrell, a postwoman in Bailieborough, had been completing her usual round on Tuesday June 11 when she encountered the horror of 85-year-old Jimmy Thompson being attacked by the animal at Seefin Hill.
Farmhand Sean Clarke was also at the scene valiantly attempting to beat the dog with a stick, and together they worked to parry its attacks and raise the alarm for help.
Mum-of-two Catherine, who used a tray for holding post as a shield, told The Anglo-Celt:
“If I had to drive over the dog – I would have driven over him – every second was vital – everyone played their part.”
Jimmy’s family have since praised the brave intervention of his neighbours, and the rapid response of emergency services who came to the elderly man’s aid.
Jimmy suffered significant damage to his right arm and massive blood loss, resulting in having to undergo four-hours of complicated surgery to mend a torn artery, stitch ripped muscle and flesh, and try to repair chewed and broken bone. He continues to receive care at Dublin’s St James’ Hospital.

Jimmy is scheduled to undergo a series of operations in the coming weeks, including extensive skin-grafting procedures.
Jimmy had been walking back from opening a gate to allow contractors enter his field to cut silage when the attack occurred.
“He was on the way back up. In Jimmy’s words the dog just... pounced at him,” explained Jimmy’s nephew, Trevor Thompson. “[The dog] put him down and [Jimmy] put up his arm to save his face, and that’s how the arm got such a bad doing.”
Had Jimmy not used his arm to protect himself, Trevor suggests there could have been a much more tragic outcome.
“A doctor said if his neck or his head got what his arm did, he wouldn’t have been worth bringing [to hospital]. He’d be gone, that’d be it.
“The force it took to break that arm, and to do what it done, if it was to his head it would have been pretty horrendous.”
Catherine, who spoke to the Celt at her home in Bracklin in Bailieborough, still remembers James cries for help.
“I got my letter tray from the van and I used it to shield me and kinda beat the dog back – I swung it around a few times and both Sean [Clarke] and I were shouting at the dog, who was pulling flesh and the flesh was dangling out of his mouth.
“When the dog did let go of James’ arm, I fired the tray at him – meanwhile Sean was keeping the dog back – luckily [the dog] did not come back.”
Another lady, Pamela O’Connor helped the heroic duo care for the now badly injured Jimmy.
Catherine, who is married to postman Darren, has been bitten “many times” in her line of work, but states she has never seen such “savagery” as faced in this dog attack.
“There was a considerable amount of blood – [Jimmy’s] jacket was basically ripped off him – his arm was very floppy and I knew it was either broken or badly damaged. All I could do was to keep as much pressure on the wound as possible.
“The dog had been pulling flesh all the time – he would release an odd time and the blood would be just pouring out of his mouth. The dog was shaking his arm and pulling it –in my opinion he was trying to take that right arm off.”
Catherine adds that her “main focus” was only to get the dog away from the stricken Jimmy, and by looking at the amount of blood now on the road, she believed every minute was “crucial”.
“Sean was beating him back with the stick – once he let go of his grip, the dog ran.
“There was nearly no flesh left on [Jimmy’s] arm and you could see that the dog had ripped out some bones and cartilage and tissue – that was nearly all gone.
“When I went to bed that night – I did not really sleep – all I could see was this big dog and all this blood – when I still go to bed at night, that is what I see – I’m replaying the incident and it is playing on my mind.”
Jimmy’s nephew Trevor paid tribute to her and Mr Clark’s vital actions, and to the quick-thinking of Garda Trevor Owens who used his belt to tie Jimmy’s arm and try to stem the blood loss on arrival.
“The blood was every place, and I mean every place. You hear stories of people cutting arteries, but it’s actually true. It was like a power hose and that’s after I landed there,” Trevor recalls.
The dramatic events continued to unfold as Jimmy was taken by garda escort to Lavey GAA pitch where an air ambulance had been dispatched to land.
“It was one of the guards who actually drove the ambulance because the paramedics were needed in the back with Jimmy. They worked through each other so well. He was no sooner brought in on the football pitch and the helicopter landed, and from there he was in the Phoenix Park in 10 minutes, where they had an ambulance to then bring him to James’, again by escort. So they were brilliant. If you had a week to plan it you probably couldn’t have done it any better. Everything was just done with precision.”
Trevor accepts there is only so much he can say as there is currently a full garda investigation being launched into the incident. A spokesperson for the force confirmed that the dog, reportedly a Perro de Presa Canario, or Canary Mastiff, a rare large Molosser-type dog breed, has since been “destroyed”. They added: “The investigation is ongoing.”
Trevor though expects Jimmy will have to remain in hospital for a “couple more weeks” at least, with plates fitted to his arm to help the bone heal.
“It’s going to be a long haul, and even after when he’s out of hospital. He’ll need looking after. It’s sad it happened at all. We’re just glad [Jimmy’s] still here.
“We’re just thankful to still have him. He’s sitting up, but he’s very shaken. It’s the shock of it all, and it’s probably only coming to him now what happened.”