My role in life is to advocate for my three children that are currently living in the medical world of the unknown. Our family lives on the sideline with the view of ALL the healthy families on a daily basis. We strive to be more like you every single day. We strive to run, play sports, ride bikes, hike the mountains here in Park City just like all of the healthy families we see every single day. As a brand new “Soccer Mom,” I was thrilled to have my only son start on a soccer team. My husband and I both attended the games when our schedules allowed. We have watched Oskar blossom physically as well as socially. The first time I sat on the sidelines, it was a gift that was much needed. I sat. I stopped working. I stopped looking at my phone. I was present in the moment.  I sat and watched my only son play soccer. I watched Oskar laugh and run. He actually looked like a healthy little boy. No one on the team had any idea what Oskar has endured through his journey and diagnostic odyssey over the past few years. We wanted to give him the gift of soccer. We wanted to give him the gift of teammates. We wanted to give him the gift of fun. We never imagined that our daughter would be attacked by a dog during his soccer game. Our family has looked forward to every single soccer game until last Thursday night. This dog owner took the gift away from our family.

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter is written in regards to our four year old daughter, Lucy Szajnuk, and the attack by a dog at the Trailside Park’s soccer field in Park City this past Thursday, September 24, 2015, resulting in a significant dog bite to Lucy’s left ankle. Because of the extent of the injury and the risk of possible joint infection, the local hospital recommended transfer to Primary Children’s Hospital Emergency Room for further care. Several witnesses noted the dog owner was not adequately controlling the dog and the owner did not remove the dog from the soccer fields after the incident.

Unfortunately, I was out of town at the time at a conference as an advocate for rare diseases. However, I have spoken with multiple witnesses at the scene. Our nanny was there with our son, Oskar, that night. Oskar is a member of the kindergarten Light Blue Team (#2). Lucy and my oldest daughter, Ava, was there with our nanny to watch the game. The dog’s owner is a nanny for another family on the kindergarten Light Blue Team (#2). His nanny is a new to Park City. She recently relocated from the state of New York to be a part-time nanny for the family.

Our Call to Action: Please review your policy on allowing dogs on the soccer fields during soccer games. I have written a full account of what happened with background information to educate you on the seriousness of the incident and the fallout from the event.

Thank you in advance for your time. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible as there are games Monday night, September 28^th, as well as Thursday night, October 1^st.

Gina Szajnuk

UPDATE: This dog should have a LIFETIME BAN on being in ANY PUBLIC AREA. We have more witnesses that have come forward and informed us that he tried to attack every single child that ran by him that night. How can any judge allow this dog to be out in public? If the dog owner pleads “guilty” we will not even be contacted. We will only be contacted if she pleads “not guilty.”  We ALL need the judge to be aware of the need for a Lifetime Ban on this dog. Any help with getting this message to the judge is much appreciated.

The Facts and Timeline:

I have previous attended Oskar’s soccer games. I met the dog owner a few weeks ago. I found her to be outgoing, pleasant, and easy to talk to. However, I did notice that she did not control her dog very well. My understanding is that he is a two-year old Rhinelander/Boxer mix. She got him from a shelter when he was a year and a half. She was his second owner. The dog was always on a leash and wore a shock collar around his neck. He would continuously try to run after other dogs and she would allow him to go a little before she pulled on his leash. I saw her do it several times while looking away from what she was allowing him to go after. She would be looking at me and talking. She would allow the dog less leash tension, and then realize it was too much and turn around.

The night of September 24th, our nanny sat away from the other nanny and the dog to watch the game. Lucy was running around and playing. As she went to run past the dog, the nanny did not control him. The dog attacked Lucy by grabbing her ankle and pulling her to the ground and dragged her. He made two puncture marks.  One on top of her ankle and one on the bottom of her heal.  The bite was violent and was not a playful nip. He was on the attack and wanted to take Lucy down.

Our nanny immediately grabbed Lucy and tried to get her away from the dog. The owner’s reaction was to immediately call me (I had given her my phone number previously because I thought she might be able to help me with some administrative duties with my non-profit). Her reaction to call me in California instead of remove the dog from the soccer field is a point of contention with me. When I picked up, I could hear Lucy streaming hysterically. I told her to hang up the phone. I wanted to talk to my nanny, not her.  She continued to stay around Lucy. I immediately asked the dog owner to text me a picture and to tell me what happened:

I wrote: “Thanks for the picture. What happened?”

Her response: “She ran by and Tyson wanted to play. She fell and he nipped at her feet. I think she’s more afraid to go to the doctor. Needed reassurance that she wasn’t going for shots, just to have a look.”

I felt this was a very disrespectful response and she did not take any responsibility as well as take responsibility for her dog’s actions. The dog owner is aware of our website, RUN, and is very aware of Lucy’s medical past and anxiety. For her to use Lucy’s anxiety about doctors at this moment as an excuse for her crying, is inexcusable. Once I spoke to my nanny, I realized it was a complete lie.

Our nanny was calm. She immediately texted me for my husband’s cell phone number. She did not alarm me. She was trying to stay as calm as possible for Lucy’s sake.

I immediately called our friend, Michelle. She is a radiologist and I knew her son was also playing at the Trailside Park soccer fields. She answered and rushed to the scene. Michelle encouraged our nanny to take Lucy immediately to urgent care in Park City.

Michelle felt that the best situation at that moment was to get our other two children away from the dog. The dog owner kept following them and kept trying to talk to Michelle and our nanny. The dog owner was completely clueless to the fact that the kids were afraid of her dog. Michelle took Oskar and Ava home.

My husband rushed up from his office in Salt Lake City to meet Lucy and our nanny at urgent care. Once he arrived, they informed him that he needed to take Lucy immediately to Primary Children’s Hospital Emergency Room due to seriousness of the bites and her unknown genetic dysfunction. The risk of infection and the severity of that for Lucy with her autonomic neuropathy caused them to make the decisions that it was safer for her to be seen at PCH. He rushed her down to the ER.

During this time, I was in communication with the soccer contact for the Trailside Park. He was extremely helpful and on top of the situation. We texted back and forth pictures and brainstormed as to how to handle the situation and get this under control. He encouraged me to call animal control. Per his request, I called Animal Control. When I mentioned that I was calling about my daughter, Lucy, she informed me that Primary Children’s Emergency Room had already called to notify them of the situation. Primary Children’s Hospital Emergency Room notified Animal Control of Summit County due to the seriousness of the bites. It was clearly an attack. Animal Control could not reach owner at this point of the night.

During this time, I tried to reach my husband for an update. I also asked the dog owner to text me the numbers for her employing family. She texted me their contact information. She repeatedly called and texted me to find out how Lucy was doing. I responded, “Do not contact me again.”

I had to wait hours in my hotel room in California to hear from Justin. The service at Primary Children’s Hospital is not very good. He was unable to leave Lucy due to her extreme anxiety of being at the hospital again. They were at the hospital for hours. There was talk that the dog’s tooth might have gone into Lucy’s ankle joint, which would then mean a much more serious risk for infection and possible surgery. The emotional stress for us as parents as well as our entire extended family across the country was extremely high while we waited for answers late into the night.

Justin eventually called. They cleaned the wounds several times. Unfortunately, Lucy is allergic to amoxicillin. So, in order to keep her safe from getting an infection, she has to take two different medicines for ten days, one of them three times a day and the other one twice a day. Due to her anxiety, this is a huge battle with her, and breaks our heart every time. She will scream and scream to not have medicine through her mouth. We have now continued to torture our Lucy to ensure that she does not get an infection. We spent over six hours both on Saturday and Sunday in order to get her to take her medicine. The emotional stress on our family due to forcing Lucy to take her medicine is just not fair. Not OK. Lucy has lost her voice from screaming crying since Thursday night.

Justin was able to bring her home around 11:30p MST on Thursday, September 24th.

When I finally returned home on Saturday afternoon, the first thing Lucy said to me was, “Mommy, that dog was mean. Is he still out there? I’m scared.”

We explained that he is currently under a ten-day mandatory quarantine in lockdown. She asked, “What does quarantine mean?”

I tried to explain that he cannot hurt her for the next few days while he’s locked away in jail.

She said, “Well, I hope my friends never have to see him. It really hurt when he bit me.”

*Update on the dog: He is in mandatory isolation for 10 days. He will get out on October 5, 2015. He was not up-to-date on his rabies shot. This is inexcusable that dogs that are not up-to-date on their shots are allowed on any Park City Soccer Field.

A CALL TO ACTION:

I am requesting that you reevaluate the current policy that dogs are allowed on the soccer fields at the Trailside Park, as well as all soccer fields in Park City, UT. As you mentioned, you tried to get this approved three years ago but there was a huge outrage by the dog owning members of the community. I am willing to talk to every single dog owning family to hear their side as to why they feel they need to have the soccer fields as a playground for their dog. We live in Park City where there are an extremely high number of locations for dogs to play. They are not allowed on the Trailside Park playgrounds as of now. Why a soccer field with young children running around? Why on the soccer fields that do not have a lot of sideline room and walkways? Why would you want to put children in the risk of being bitten by a dog that wasn’t even UP TO DATE ON HIS RABIES SHOT?

My call to action to have a new policy in place that DOGs are NOT allowed on any soccer field in Park City, UT.

We did not ask for this. But if any of you reading this truly know me, I will go to the end of the earth to keep my children SAFE and HEALTHY.

Much love,

Gina Szajnuk

There is a Board Meeting on Tuesday, October 13th, at 6:00pm. They will discuss the policy at this meeting. It is open to the public.

Here is the link to the information from their website.

http://basinrecreation.org/public_meetings.html#top

The Murray Ute Conference (little league football) prohibits dogs from ALL venues.

The Murray Ute Football League: No dogs, pets, or animals allowed on any fields.

Sandy Soccer, serving Sandy and Draper, do NOT allow dogs on the fields during practice and games.

Sandy and Draper Utah Soccer – Remember, no dogs or other animals are allowed at the fields during practice or games.

Please see below for appropriate locations to enjoy your dog with your children as a family.

Park City Dog Parks

About Gina:

Gina Szajnuk was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Salt Lake City, UT, where she serves as the Co-founder and Executive Director for the Rare & Undiagnosed Network (RUN). Her three beautiful children, each of whom live with a rare and undiagnosed disease, continue to inspire and motivate her as she fights for clinical whole genome sequencing to be covered by insurance companies. Gina was recently asked to be the Utah State Ambassador for NORD (National Organization for Rare Diseases). She served on the Executive Committee for Utah Rare 2015 and will be the Chair of Utah Rare in 2016. She is on the Program Committee for the National Ability Center.  

The video below was taken the morning before I left to attend the The Global Genes RARE Patient Advocacy Summit in Huntington Beach, CA. I prayed that Lucy, Ava and Oskar would be safe and healthy while I took time away from them to learn more about the rare community that I am so desperately trying to help.