Pregnant woman hospitalized after being attacked by dog in Fort Myers

An eight-month pregnant woman remains in the hospital after she was violently mauled by a dog.

“If it did this to me, it would have killed a child,” said Lythiea Smith.

Smith has bite marks and scratches that will turn into scars from her scary encounter with a Pit Bull off Palm Beach Boulevard and Waverly Avenue.

“Out of the blue a dog came out of nowhere from somebody’s yard and attacked me. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I just wanted to go to sleep so the pain could stop,” Smith said.

Smith, 27, said her motherly instincts kicked in during the attack when she covered her stomach, protecting her unborn daughter, Paris.

“He hit my arm but he didn’t hit anything around my stomach. That was God, that’s all it was,” Smith said.

WINK News visited the dog owner’s residence, but no one answered the door. The dog could be heard barking at the window.

However, a next-door neighbor says the dog is friendly and won’t attack unless provoked.

“There can be children outside and the dog can be outside and the dog won’t do anything and stay in his own place,” said neighbor Liliana Martinez.

Smith says she wanted a Pit Bull as a pet, but after this experience, she may have changed her tune.

She adds that animal control called her to get the address of where the attack happened. She said they plan on taking the dog.

But Smith also wants her bite marks and scratches to serve as a lesson for all dog owners.

“They should keep their dog trained right. If you can’t tell your dog to stop, you should keep your dog locked in somewhere because that dog could have killed me,” she said.

Smith says she wants to take legal action against the dog owner. But for now, she’s focused on recovering at the hospital where doctors are monitoring her cuts for infections.

Her daughter will be born in July.