A jury in metro Atlanta has decided a family should receive $72 million after a dog attack nearly killed their daughter on March 9, 2010.
The jury took 45 minutes to come back with the verdict.
Erin Ingram was 8 years old when she was attacked while playing basketball in her driveway by two neighborhood pit bulls.
Erin had six operations in the first six months after her injury, plus more than a dozen in all. The surgeries and medical care costed the Ingram family hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Erin was so badly mauled that a surgeon had to remove part of her arm. Her other arm remains disfigured and her ankles are still scarred. Today, Erin has some use of her right arm and slight use of her left.
Father Tommie Ingram says that Erin’s spirits are good despite nightmares.
Many children in the neighborhood said that the same pit bulls had also bitten them.
UPDATE:
A DeKalb, Georgia County judge has overturned a jury’s decision awarding the victim of a pit bull attack $72 million.
Victim Erin Ingram and her family will instead receive $36,941,278.50.
The civil verdict came after a criminal verdict was granted in 2012. The animals’ owner, Twuann Vaughn was sentenced to 16 months in jail for violating Georgia’s Vicious Dog Act.
Vaughn was also sentenced to 36 months of probation and 240 hours of community service.
Erin, then 8 years old, testified that she thought her life would end after the two dogs knocked her to the ground and bit her several times. Her arm was amputated.
“My family has been having hard times since the accident,” the little girl said in court. “I have nightmares about everything over and over, and I cannot sleep.”
