A metro Atlanta jury has decided a family should receive $72 million after a dog attack nearly killed their daughter.
It took the jury only 45 minutes to come back with the verdict.
Erin Ingram was 8 years old when she was attacked by two neighborhood dogs in her family's driveway as she was playing basketball.
She had six operations in the first six months following her injury, plus more than a dozen in all, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. The girl was so badly mauled, a surgeon had to remove part of her arm. The other arm has been left disfigured and her ankles are also scarred from the attack. She has some use of her right arm and very little use of her left arm.
Tommie Ingram says his daughter's spirits are good, but she still has nightmares.
Several neighborhood children said the same dogs had bit them before, but on March 9, 2010, they were loose and attacked Erin.
"They were biting me on my arms and on my ankles," she told the jury. "I was screaming for help."
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The owner maintained the dogs broke out of the kennel when she wasn't home. The owner of the dogs was found guilty on six misdemeanor counts, including reckless conduct and owning a vicious dog.
The owner, Twyann Vaughn, apologized to the family.
"I'm just very, very sorry that it all happened," Vaughn said in 2010. "I'm just very, very sorry that it all happened and I just want to express that to the family. I hope Erin's doing well. I really do."
The police officer who rescued Erin fatally shot one of the dogs that attacked her. The other was later euthanized.
Her attorneys said the jury's award is one of the largest in a dog attack case.
According to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the massive monetary award is largely symbolic. While the jury initially allowed for $36 million in punitive damages in addition to compensatory damages, the punitive damages were reduced to $250,000. While the Ingrams expect little monetary payment from Vaughn, they hope the verdict sends a message to vicious dog owners.
