Oliver Vittetoe is 4 and all he wanted to do was pet a cute little doggie at French Memorial Park. That move triggered a brutal, gruesome attack by the little dog’s big buddy – a German Shepherd-Huskey mix. In the blink of an eye, the dog lunged and ripped apart Oliver’s left cheek from his mouth and just below his eye to his ear.

The dog’s owner jumped in, pulled her dog off Oliver and grabbed napkins to try and slow the bleeding. In another second or two Oliver’s father, Josh, was holding his son. The blood was massive and Josh took off his shirt to apply pressure and soak it up.

“Oliver was screaming and hollering and yelling for his Mom over and over,” Josh says. “I was holding him, my shirt on his face and trying to call 911 at the same time. His cheek was brutally ripped wide open.”

“Mom” is Lyndsey and she had just gotten home from her job at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. She is a registered nurse in interventional radiology. Josh called her and said Oliver’s been hurt. “It’s bad. You need to be here fast.”

The Vittetoe home is only three minutes from the park. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever driven,” Lyndsey said. “I got to them and took him from Josh and he moved the shirt and let me see it. I got hot all over and lightheaded. Someone grabbed me and helped me sit down. I was in shock. But I think it was harder on Josh than it was on me. He was there and held Oliver and was covered in his blood.”

Josh works for Designsensory as its technical director of platforms.

Also, less than three minutes away from the park off Martin Mill Pike is Rural Metro’s Station 28. And a minute or two after Lyndsey got to Oliver, the Engine 228 Blue shift crew pulled up right next to them. The crew, led by Capt. Logan Blaylock, included Engineer Matt Braden (the driver) and Firefighter Shaquille “Shaq” Hall. Braden took the lead and even went with them to the emergency room, all the while caring for and talking to Oliver and keeping Lyndsey propped up and not fainting.

Little Oliver is a hero in this story, and we’ll be explaining that, but so were Braden and AMR Ambulance’s Jake Nelson – both anointed by Lyndsey as Our Town Heroes.

Here are Oliver’s left-cheek scars today from the dog attack this past April

But before that, here’s an update on Oliver now, close to 2-1/2 months after the attack on Monday April 28, 2005, at 6:45 p.m. It took approximately 50 stitches to close the wounds at UTMC’s Emergency Department. Mom says he’s doing great. But she and Josh have to apply daily treatments to his face.

“We either do cream twice a day or silicone scar sheets. It’s very important that we keep his scar protected from the sun, especially during the first year of healing. The bite impacted several layers of skin tissue and he had three layers of stitches. He is the bravest boy I’ve ever known!” Lyndsey says.

He has undergone two surgeries already and will no doubt undergo others as he gets older, but nothing will be done for at least a year, Lyndsey says. “He will have to have some surgeries for scar reconstructions for sure,” she said.

Since the accident Lyndsey says Oliver’s personality and attitude have changed. “He’s a little bit clingier now and maybe a little more needy than before. But he’s handled it great. People ask him about his scar and he says ‘A dog bit me’ or he’ll say ‘Ask Mom.’ He talks about it a lot.”

The Vittetoes have a small dog at home – Tucker the Maltese. “He’s OK with Tucker and the other dogs in the family that he trusts. But he’s very leery of other dogs. When we’re back at the park or anywhere he’ll tell us if he sees another dog.”

The dog that attacked Oliver was not put down. It was the first time he had bitten someone and he did fine during a 10-day hold with his family. Thankfully, the bite did no damage to Oliver’s left eye or to the left facial nerve. The dog’s bite also did not damage the inside of his mouth, teeth or tongue. He did have a few stitches in his lips and on his chin.

Rural Metro Firefighter Shaquille “Shaq” Hall also was in the ambulance helping care for Oliver

The initial surgery was at UT and then they took an ambulance ride to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH) and stayed a day. Six days later a second one-hour surgery was done to remove the sutures.

Firefighter Braden, 39, rode in the ambulance with Oliver and his mother along with Nelson. “When I first saw Oliver, I knew there was not a lot we could do for him, that we had to get him to the ER. I wanted to try and keep him calm, and Mom too,” Braden said. “In my 17 years, this is the absolute worst dog bite I’ve ever seen. It was shocking even to me when I first saw it.

“But hey, this kid was a trooper. He calmed down and stopped crying. With a small child you need to explain every little thing that’s happening. Don’t try to sugarcoat it. Let them know this will hurt a little bit or they won’t trust you. Once you lose that trust you can’t get it back,” Braden explained. “Mom had no color in her face. I was holding her propped up against my leg all the way to UT and helping with Oliver too.”

Matt spent short stretches with the Karns and the Alcoa fire departments before joining Rural Metro in 2016. Lyndsey says Braden, a 17-year EMT-IV (emergency medical technician) first responder, never left their side until he left UT to return to his station.

Braden says he was on the cot with Oliver, maintaining pressure on the side of his face to control bleeding while also trying to keep mom as calm as possible. “Shaquille was also with me making sure we had all the equipment we needed while enroute. Nelson took care of pain management and monitored his airway. Capt. Blaylock was at the park with KCSO (Knox County Sheriff’s Office) letting them know everything that went on while we were there,” Braden said.

Here are a few other things within this story:

  • “Lyndsey says Oliver was hesitant to go back to his favorite park next to his grandparents’ house, but he decided that that’s where he wanted to go and braved it. He’s fine with it now.”
  • On May 25 the Vittetoe family visited Rural Metro Station 228 and visited with the heroes who were there for Oliver. “We got to hang out with him and love on him,” Braden said. Oliver crawled all over Engine 228 and the firefighters had some gifts for him too – a firefighter’s squirt gun, Matchbox cars, a Rural Metro baseball cap and patches from their uniforms.
  • It’s interesting how situations can create surprises. Lyndsey realized that Braden’s wife, Hannah, who owns her own jewelry business, was a high school friend at South-Doyle and three weeks ago the two couples bumped into one another at Walmart.

    The Vittetoe Family today — Lyndsey’s holding her son Oliver, 4, and Dad Josh has the family pooch in hand — Tucker the Maltese

Lyndsey had something else to share.

“Matt and the team were absolutely wonderful. They were so good with Oliver, keeping him calm and comfortable in such a scary situation. Matt ended up getting to Oliver first and didn’t leave our side until he was situated in the trauma bay,” Lyndsey said. “Jake Nelson was also on the ambulance with us and he started Oliver’s IV and gave him pain medicine to help him get comfortable. I cannot say enough good things about them. They were quick to respond, caring and great with Oliver and myself.”

Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.

Our Town Hero is sponsored by Aubrey’s Restaurants.

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