Maria Arcos was just released from the hospital. Her wounds are still too bloody and raw to show.
"I'm terrified," she said.
It was an early morning almost exactly a month ago. Arcos, 57, was walking beneath the overpass near the Eastex Freeway and Lyons when she says the dogs came out of nowhere.
First, there were three of them. Then, there were about 20.
Her son, Erick Reyes, translated what happened:
"All of a sudden, a lot of dogs came at her," Reyes said. "She tried to defend herself, but she couldn't. It was too many dogs."
Animal control has trapped and euthanized what they believe is the entire pack of wild dogs. The mixed-breed dogs were living together beneath a nearby funeral home.
"They tore her clothes off and everything. She was completely naked when she was attacked," Reyes said.
Now Arcos and her family are struggling to pay hospital costs. She's been in the hospital for nearly a month; two weeks of which she was in a medically-induced coma. Arcos still has several surgeries to go, and doctors say she may never walk normally again.
"We're going to need a lot of help from everywhere. Our family will try to raise something up. We don't have Medicaid," Reyes said. "It's hard for me to talk about it, but I have to be strong for her. Good thing God still has her with us."
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