Dog attack victim back home

Gallery Update

KNYSNA NEWS - When walking up to his house in Sethosa Street, Joodsekamp, you would never imagine to find the young boy who was recently almost mauled to death by *two pit bulls playing marbles with his friends outside.

But that is exactly what this journalist finds when visiting 11-year-old Thehano Daman on Monday 14 May, almost two months after the incident. He sends marbles flying, laughs and argues with friends, and even shoots a mischievous smile or two at you while you stare at him in disbelief.

Click here for a photo gallery.

Thehano was attacked by the two dogs on 21 March, while on his way to visit friends on a small field near his home, frequented by the children of the community.

Two men on the scene were finally able to rescue him by chasing the dogs off with sticks and a spade before the dogs could drag him into a bush nearby.

Thehano Daman (in blue cap) plays with some friends at his home in Joodsekamp, Knysna - almost like the brutal attack never happened. Photos: Stefan Goosen

Nine operations later
Since that fateful day the brave young man has undergone nine operations – some at George Hospital, but the majority at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital in Cape Town, and most of them skin grafts. He came back home on Friday 4 May.

According to his mother Melonie Philander (previously Daman), Thehano will go back to hospital again in November this year. Until then he has weekly appointments to change the dressing on his wounds and spend time with a physiotherapist.

“I am very glad to be back home and I missed school a lot. I can’t wait to go back and learn. It wasn’t very nice at the hospital and the physio was hard work,” says the little boy.

Going back in time
Although Thehano seems like a normal worry-free child again, except for the limp he currently has due to muscle damage in his right leg, the impact of what happened to him is almost visible when visiting the scene of the brutal attack – a field where he and other kids play often – and he only touches slightly on what occurred.

“They came through the bushes over there. They didn’t bark or anything, I just felt them push me down. I can’t even remember what I was thinking,” he says.

He did everything possible to chase the dogs off him as they were dragging him towards a bush nearby, Thehano recalls. “I kicked, rolled, hit and pushed them – anything to get them off me,” he says, adding that there was a moment where he thought he was going to die.

Cyril Philander (left), Thehano Daman, and Melonie Philander.

Fought back with all his might
The little warrior says that at one point he was able to grab one of the dogs by the snout to stop it from biting him any further. “The dog’s claw was digging into my face and it was trying to get to my neck. I pushed him and grabbed his snout. That’s when Uncle Freddie came to help.”

He felt no physical pain during the attack, he says – only when the dogs initially took him down.

The chance that Thehano might never dance again doesn’t seem to bother him as he is determined that he will. His mother adds that he is already moving with the music at home. “He seems to be the same Thehano now that he was before the dogs attacked him. He starts moving his upper body, but not the legs yet.”

Thehano's right leg bore the brunt of the damage, and he still doesn’t have all the feeling back in his left buttock yet.

Thehano Daman shows the Knysna-Plett Herald how he grabbed the snout of one of the dogs biting him, to stop it from getting to his neck. Behind him is the field he was attacked on. He said the dogs came out of the bushes towards the back of the photo.

Whole family traumatised
“I am extremely happy we are back home again. I went through almost just as much trauma as my son – to see him suffer like that was the worst,” says Philander, adding that whenever Thehano cried, she would cry.

“I had to be strong for him, though, and kept on encouraging him. I kept telling him he wasn’t going to stay lying down forever, and that he was going to get up and walk again. It is thanks to God’s grace that he can walk today, without crutches,” she says.

Stepfather Cyril Philander says he had to stay home and play the role of both father and mother to their other son for a while. “I was very emotional and not myself at all – I couldn’t handle it. To see someone in that state… uh-uh,” he says, shaking his head, unable to find the right words.

“I am just grateful to God and to every person who said a prayer for us,” he adds.

* After the incident, the dogs were euthanised by the Knysna Animal Welfare Society, and a case of attempted murder was opened against the owner.

Thehano Daman and friends.