Two-year-old girl recovering after facial re-implantation surgery

A little girl from the East Valley is still recovering after she was attacked by a family dog last year.

Last week doctors from Loma Linda released details about her facial re-implantation surgery.

For a patient of her age, there is only one other reported surgery like this, that was in 1976.

In August, a family dog attacked Mariah Solomon, biting off a portion of her face from her nose down to her mouth.

“I didn’t know what to think. First thing that went into my mind was I need to get her to the hospital, as soon as possible. I didn’t even think to wait for an ambulance. I got her in a car and left,” Veronica Pea,Mariah’s mother, said.

A few hours later, doctors at Loma Linda got the call.

They said what they saw was horrifying.

“We saw a picture of a face and a lip and a nose and a cheek. The entire upper lip just separate, sitting on the table,” said Dr. Paul Walker, a head and neck surgeon.

Doctors Nathaniel Peterson and Paul Walker knew they had to try to re-implant Mariah’s face.

Something they said is unprecedented for a girl her age.

“You have to have an intact pierce of tissue. It had to happen in a certain period of time so it can be addressed in an emergency surgery,” Peterson said.

Time was against them, Peterson estimates they had six hours to make it work. Three had already gone by.

“If you don’t get this to work right away then the face will die. You can’t just put it on. It has to be put on exactly. The blood vessels have to be hooked back up and it has to be within a certain time period,” Walker said.

Miraculously, it worked.

Just three weeks after the procedure, Mariah and her mom could go home.

The dog who bit Mariah was a family member’s pitbull. But Pea said it doesn’t matter what kind of dog it is.

“It doesn’t matter big or small, medium. Dogs will be dogs and you can’t control a child what they do. They’ll react, they’ll walk away from you and it happens in seconds. Just keep your child close to you,” Pea said.

Pea said if it wasn’t for Loma Linda, Mariah’s life would be drastically different.

“I really appreciate all the hard work they did for Mariah, even down to the nurses. Everyone was amazing doctors took care of her like she was her own child,” Pea said.

Luckily she’s able to smile, something all two year old’s should do.