Pregnant carer attacked by dog on home visit secures damages and top surgery treatment

Rebecca Scobie was on her first ever visit to a client’s house when she was bitten on the face by a bulldog.

The 24-year-old had only been in the property for a matter of minutes before the attack happened and left her nose “hanging off”.

Luckily, Rebecca from Ardrossan, Ayrshire was able to be treated quickly by medics to give her the best chance of recovery and, after making a workplace injury claim with Digby Brown, she was able to secure compensation to cover lost earnings and the cost of plastic surgery.  

Recalling the terrifying incident, Rebecca said: “I thought the dog had broken my nose with the impact.

“Then I just saw all the blood pouring. It turned out the dog had bitten off the tip of my nose and some of the left side was also missing.

“My client’s son was there and he was in a real panic. He was grabbing kitchen roll for me and phoning for an ambulance. Their panic then made me panic and I knew I had to see what was happening so that’s when I got my phone out.” 

Rebecca turned on the front-facing camera of her mobile phone and instantly saw the damage to her face.

The tip of her nose was missing as was cartilage to the left side of her nose.

Rebecca then called her partner who came to the property and took her straight to A&E for immediate medical attention.

She was referred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where, due to being pregnant with her first child, she had to undergo emergency plastic surgery while fully awake with only local anaesthetic. 

Recalling the surgery, Rebecca said: “It was terrifying. I thought they'd just stitch it back up, but the surgical team said I needed a skin graft. 

“I got really upset when they started talking about taking skin from other parts of my body then on top of that, because I was awake, I could feel every movement and hear all the noises - they just covered my face so I couldn’t physically watch what was happening.”

Recovery from surgery took months. Rebecca felt unable to leave the house for weeks due to the physical pain and anxiety from the bandages and scarring. 

She explained: “My partner was amazing and cared for me as well as helping tackle the domestic issues - he really was a rock for me.

“But emotionally I was in quite an isolated place. It took a long time to find my strength and confidence to get back outside - I think it came from my son as I wanted to be able to get out the house and have him experience the outside world. But stepping out that front door was huge.”

Rebecca contacted Digby Brown for legal help. She was put in touch with Isla McKnight , Senior Associate in our Ayr office, who began building a legal action to secure compensation and enhanced medical treatment like plastic surgery.

One thing Isla knew early in her investigations was the bulldog-cross was owned by the son of Rebecca’s client.

However, the owner was not the key issue for Isla - in her opinion, after years of experience in workplace compensation claims, what mattered was that Rebecca was sent into the house without her employer doing a proper risk assessment or giving her proper training on what to do in the event of dogs being present.

At first the employer’s insurance company denied liability. Isla argued strongly against this. They then agreed to accept liability on the understanding that Rebecca shared the blame for what happened, but Isla believed an argument like this - known as contributory negligence  – was unfair and advised Rebecca to continue to a court action to get full, fair damages.   

Rebecca followed the legal guidance and in the end the case settled for £62,500 with the insurer accepting liability in full - and without the need to raise a court action.

She said: “Isla was amazing from start to finish. It sounds funny but I was surprised how ‘normal’ she was – I expected a lawyer to be more formal, but Isla was so softly spoken and each time we spoke it felt like just a natural conversation.

“I would obviously rather not have had my nose bitten but the compensation is definitely life-changing as it helped cover my lost earnings from when I had to recover and can go towards plastic surgery in the future.”