THERE has been joy for the family of a girl mauled by a dog as the eight-year-old recovered to make her First Holy Communion.
Annie McFadden needed 80 stitches to her head and body after she was attacked by a pitbull-type dog last week, but was given the all clear by doctors to make the sacrament yesterday.
The St Patrick’s Primary School pupil suffered a catalogue of injuries last Sunday after she left her home at at Brucevale Park, off the Cliftonville Road, to go to Girdwood Community Hub in north Belfast to play football with a friend.
Annie was was taken to the Mater Hospital and transferred to the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald, where she received 20 stitches to a head wound and 60 more to her chest, arms and upper body.
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Her family were told that a wound on Annie's chest was just 2cms from piercing her heart.
She had to return to the Ulster Hospital on Friday to see doctors about nerve damage to her shoulder when she was cleared to make her First Holy Communion along with her classmates at St Patrick's Church.
Following the Mass, the eight-year-old, who had a plaster covering a wound on the side of her face, happily posed for photographs alongside the family.
Her mother, Patricia McFadden said she was "so happy" that Annie had been well enough to receive the sacrament.
"She is just a wee dream," she said.
"She is always still smiling no matter what".
The mother-of-three said doctors had removed her daughter's stitches and she would have to return to the Ulster Hospital to see to specialists about her scars.
"If it was me, I wouldn't have been able to do it," she said.
"We are trying to focus on her now".
Belfast City Council said its wardens are investigating the dog attack.
