Palatine woman mauled by dog seeking safety for others

Though Margaret Brigham is still on edge after her lower lip was torn by a Rottweiler in a Rolling Meadows park Tuesday, it's the safety of others she's most concerned about now.

Despite her hours of treatment and an emergency plastic surgery, the whereabouts of the dog and its handler remained unknown Thursday.

The 31-year-old Palatine woman was driving through Rolling Meadows about 10:45 a.m. Tuesday when she took a cell phone call from a friend in Arlington Heights.

She pulled over and parked at Countryside Park at Euclid Avenue and Vermont Street to continue the conversation, but as it was such a beautiful day she got out of her car to go sit on a park bench.

As she talked there, a man apparently in his late teens walked by with a Rottweiler on a leash. As they approached Brigham, the man suddenly lost control of the dog and it lunged at her face.

"He seemed terrified," Brigham said of the man's own reaction to the attack.

She described the dog's handler as a slender white male, between 17 and 20 years old, and about 6 feet 3 inches tall.

The attack left Brigham with a four-inch tear from the left side of her lip to her chin and a longer scratch along her right cheek.

Knowing first-aid from her background as a swimming and Sunday school teacher, Brigham immediately applied pressure to her bleeding face and told her friend on the cell phone to meet her at the Alexian Brothers Treatment Center in Palatine.

Though she knew there was nothing the dog's handler could immediately do for her, Brigham saw him leaving the park in another direction.

Brigham said she couldn't have been more pleased with the care she got at the treatment center, including its making arrangements with the nearest plastic surgeon on call, at Sherman Hospital in Elgin. There she underwent a procedure to sew her lip back together and was out of the hospital by 4:30 p.m.

Later that evening she and her mother, Susan Gooch, went to the Rolling Meadows police station to file a report.

Gooch said they are not seeking restitution from the owner, but want to be sure the dog has had its vaccinations and measures will be taken to prevent future attacks.

"We're not angry, we just want safety for the community," Gooch said.

They're especially concerned because Countryside Park seemed set up specifically for young children, any of whom Brigham thinks could have been killed by the same level of attack.

They believe the dog's walker may not be deliberately hiding, but may simply not know what he's supposed to do.

But the two were disappointed when they picked up the report from Rolling Meadows police Thursday and found a "No further action" box checked at the bottom.

Sgt. Tony Gaspari of the Rolling Meadows police said the phrase doesn't necessarily mean no follow-up is under way. He is checking with officers involved with the case on its status.

Meanwhile, Brigham said she's experiencing a number of temporary consequences from her attack. She can't enter a pool for her swimming teacher job for the next three weeks, can't stay in the sun while she's on antibiotics and can't drive a car while she's on pain medication.

She also wears a surgical mask when she goes out so as not to worry her 7-year-old daughter's friends and classmates, whom she also sees at Sunday school and in her position as a Girl Scout leader.

Her plastic surgeon told her it will take a full three months before her stitched face completely heals.