JJ Rodriguez is "thriving" a year after being mauled by his neighbor's pitbulls. The toddler was attacked in February 2022 and has undergone 12 surgeries to reconstruct his face. But despite his terrible ordeal, his family remains positive.
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JJ was playing with his sisters in their yard when the neighbor's pitbulls ambushed them and began attacking the boy, who was 1-year-old at the time.
"I didn't even take two steps and I heard dogs," his father Jose Rodriguez told local news affiliate KOKH. "As soon as I heard the dogs I knew, I felt it in my gut that it wasn't a regular dog fight."
"His eyes are dislocated, his nose will never be the same, he has a trach in his throat right now to help him breathe, his lungs are messed up, his jaw was broken in several different places, his teeth were pulled out by the dogs," JJ's grandmother, Delfina Wright, told news station KFOR shortly after the attack.
The toddler was in the hospital for three months immediately following the incident. He had to undergo skin grafts and reconstruction of the bones in his face.
"His recovery was a difficult one. He had his face reconstructed," Jose Rodriguez told the Daily Mail. "His initial surgery was 16 hours. They put in a tracheotomy and harvested two of his ribs to rebuild his face, specifically his jaw, nose, cheekbones, and to repair the orbital walls and floor of his eye."
He added, "Literally half his face has been ripped off. He is by all means a true miracle."
"He will need surgeries well into his early adulthood," Rodriguez shared, adding that JJ was likely having a 13th surgery soon.
"There is no foreseeable end in sight, and the number of surgeries cannot be predicted but will be upwards of 30 is what we know for sure."
The dog who attacked JJ has been put down, according to multiple reports.
Now, over a year after JJ's attack, he is doing much better, and has started doing therapy with dogs so he isn't afraid. According to his dad, the therapy has been going well, but of course his son will never be fully healed from the experience.
"JJ's doing well in fact he is thriving! He's just as happy as he always was he does have some triggers and reactions so he has pretty bad PTSD and suffers from night terrors," he explained. "But overall the kid is unstoppable. I called JJ the indestructible baby well before the attack now he's just proven it and lived up to the name."
