Kyleen Waltman arms ripped off by neighbor’s pit bulls learns she won’t be able to wear prosthetics

Kyleen Waltman, 38 (pictured), was mauled by three pit bulls last month while walking to her mother’s home in rural Honea Path, about 80 miles northwest of Columbia

A South Carolina mother of three who lost both arms to a pack of pit bulls is having to deal with another round of heartbreak having been told the nature of her injuries were so severe she will be unable to wear prosthetic limbs.

Kyleen Waltman, 38, was mauled by three pit bulls last month while walking to her mother’s home in rural Honea Path, about 80 miles northwest of Columbia. She has since undergone more than 10 surgeries and has lost both her arms. 

Her sister Amy Wynne, 41, wrote in a Wednesday GoFundMe update how the family had hoped that she was going be able to be fitted with a prosthetic for her right arm, but doctors have now said that there is simply not enough tissue or bone for it to be attached. They’ve had to remove more of the bone as a result, meaning Waltman is no longer able to have prosthetic limbs fitted. 

‘We thought her right shoulder was going to be good and they were able to fit it with a prosthetic, well yesterday they found an infection in the bone and had to remove more of the bone. So now she will not be able to have regular prosthetics on either shoulder,’ Wynne wrote in the devastating post in which she also revealed how her sister’s body is still fighting off an infection on her leg.

Although her sister Amy Wynne, 41, wrote in a Monday GoFundMe update that Waltman has lost so much bone and tissue, she will no longer be able to wear prosthetic arms 

‘Her left leg is giving not only her but the doctors a fit. The infection in it is the same infection that she has had throughout her whole body, but for some reason the infection in her leg they can’t stop from spreading.’ 

Wynne explained how the family would be facing the dogs’ owner in court for the first time since the attack. Justin Minor (pictured) was arrested and charged with three counts of owning a dangerous animal that attacked and injured a human. His pit bulls have been euthanized since the attack

Earlier this month, doctors attempted to explain to her how she had lost both of her arms but became so distressed she was sedated once again.

Wynne now says that the news has has been delivered with her sister ‘fully aware’ what has happened. 

‘The doctors have told Kyleen once again about her arms and about most of the damage the dogs had done. She is now fully aware of the situation. She still has a long way to go. She has survived this for a reason,’ Wynne added optimistically. 

Wynne also explained how the family would be facing Moore in court on Thursday for the very first time since the attack. 

‘We go to court and this is where the judge is going to tell him (dog owner) what all his charges are and the repercussions of his actions. So I ask that you all please pray for my mama when she sees him face to face for the first time since the accident that everything goes accordingly.’

Two days after the March attack, dog owner Justin Minor was arrested and charged with three counts of owning a dangerous animal that attacked and injured a human, rabies control violation, and dangerous animal not permitted beyond premises unless restrained, according to The State.  

He was released on a $15,000 bond last month but he may still face a penalty of $5,000 or a sentence of three years in prison. 

Minor is pictured at his bail hearing last month before he was released on $15,000 bond

On Tuesday, Watlman, pictured, had surgery for her left leg, which Wynne said was still ‘up for amputation’ if it doesn’t start to heal correctly

On Sunday, Wynne told how her sister kept asking for her mother to hold her hand. 

‘She will ask our mama to hold her hand and mama says “I am,” and Kyleen will say “OK.” It’s sad to see her like this.’

Regardless, Wynne wrote, Kyleen is in ‘high spirits.’ 

‘Kyleen is very antsy she wants to leave and wants to drink her Dr. Pepper and get out of bed,’ Wynne wrote.

As of Thursday, the fundraiser for Waltman has raised $225,000 from more than 4,700 donations. 

In her latest battle, doctors performed a tracheostomy on her, which means a hole was cut in her neck and a tube inserted to help her breathe. She also had to have a shunt put in her left lung to help with the fluid.  

‘Here we are trying to figure out how to keep her from thinking negative thoughts about her life. I understand that for 38 years she’s had arms and now she doesn’t, how she’s thinking. She’s still fighting. Prayers are working and slowly she is healing,’ Wynne wrote. 

Tanya Gilmer, Waltman’s best friend, told WGN Radio that the attack came as she was walking from her boyfriend’s home to her mother’s property.

‘As far as I know, the dogs just jumped on her and you can actually see in the road if you go down there, where she fought the dog, trying to fight them off,’ Gilmer said.

The dogs were seized by Abbeville County Animal Control, and the Abbeville County Sheriff’s Office before being euthanized and sent away for testing.  

Avery Presley, a local farmer driving his tractor to feed his cows down the road, saw Waltman under attack in a ditch and was able to scare the dogs away by firing his gun into the air, police said. 

Amy Wynne has been providing regular updates on a GoFundMe page that she started to raise medical funds. As of Tuesday, more than $212,000 has been donated

‘I ain’t no hero,’ Presley told the Greenwood Index Journal. ‘I still feel guilty about not getting there earlier. I always carry a gun for safety.’ 

Waltman’s GoFundMe page states ‘If it wasn’t for [the passerby], my sister wouldn’t be here,’ Waltman’s other sister, Shenna Green, said. ‘By that time, they couldn’t even tell who she was.’

‘She didn’t deserve it. She was a good person. She helped everybody… She just found out she’s a grandma [and]…can’t even hold the grandbaby and that’s going to be devastating.’

Gilmer told the local radio station that the dogs ‘pretty much ripped all the meat from [Waltman’s] arms,’ and that the woman now has ‘a hole in the back of her head.’ 

On Minor’s property, a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign can be seen on Minor’s property

‘I’m still in shock of it. The pictures of her tore my heart to pieces, but regardless, she’s still the same beautiful Kyleen to me,’ said Gilmer, who has been friends with Waltman for three decades. 

‘She’ll always be the same beautiful Kyleen to me.’   

Gilmer said that Waltman, who is also a grandmother of one, will be in the hospital for at least three to four months, followed by a long period of rehabilitation. 

‘She’s alive. She’s a fighter. She’s going to fight through this. I know her. She’s going to fight through it.’  

Benjamin Alewine, Minor’s neighbor and cousin, saw Waltman lying in the ditch after she was attacked. He told the Greenwood Index Journal that the ‘hole’ in the back of her head was about the diameter of a coffee cup. 

‘I ain’t never seen no dog do that to anyone,’ he said. ‘This is the most awful sight I ever seen, for a dog attack.’

‘It’s hard to forget it. I asked her what her name was and she couldn’t even move her lips.’

He had known Waltman for 25 years, but was unable to recognize her until deputies came to the scene and pulled her identification from her pocket. 

Alewine said he didn’t know where Minor got the dogs, but said he had a habit of adopting strays. A few days before the attack, he said, he carried a PVC in his hand for protection against the dogs as he walked down the road. 

‘If you ain’t got a stick in your hand, they’ll bite you,’ he said. ‘I’m scared of walking on my property at night.’

He told the outlet that his Chihuahua, which he’d had for three years, disappeared about three weeks ago – he wondered if Minor’s dogs had gotten to it. 

There is a leash law in Honea Path, he said.

Kyleen Waltman, 38, needed to be sedated after learning that she had lost both of her arms

Local news outlets have photographed ‘Beware of dog’ signs around Minor’s property. Animals services said it impounded another eight dogs from the owner’s property on a ten day quarantine because of unknown circumstances surrounding the attack. 

Waltman’s family wants Minor held accountable for the attack that changed changed the victim’s life. 

Adonia Gymer, Waltman’s cousin, told DailyMail.com that she was ‘personally angry’ about the attack. 

‘Justin Minor knew his dogs were vicious and he let them run free,’ she said on Saturday. ‘I’ve known Justin for years. He made those dogs mean on purpose. They’ve bitten people before.’

‘Kyleen is a loving, big-hearted woman,’ Gymer said. ‘She especially loves animals. Nobody deserves this, but Kyleen really didn’t.’

Benjamin Alewine (pictured), Minor’s neighbor and cousin, saw Waltman lying in the ditch after she was attacked. He told the Greenwood Index Journal that the ‘hole’ in the back of her head was about the diameter of a coffee cup. Kyleen worked with her mother at Lou & Perry’s restaurant, according to the Greenwood Index Journal. Her manager, Eric Vaughn Jr. (pictured), said she’d worked there since she was 17 or 18 years old, and that her mother was struggling emotionally after the attack

‘It could’ve been prevented,’ sister Amy Wynne, said. 

‘If the dogs were locked up or if the dogs were chained up, or if they were never there to begin with, this would’ve never happened.’ 

Kyleen worked with her mother at Lou & Perry’s restaurant, according to the Greenwood Index Journal.  Her manager, Eric Vaughn Jr., said she’d worked there since she was 17 or 18. 

‘She’s a tough woman for sure and I’m hoping she’ll be able to fight this,’ he said. ‘I hate it. All we can do is let the doctors do their best and let everything take its path.’

He said Waltman’s mother, who visited the restaurant before traveling to Greenville to see her daughter in the hospital, is ‘taking it hard.’ 

More than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year in the United States, with 800,000 of the victims requiring medical attention, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. 

Across studies, 22.5 percent of reported dog bites – the highest percentage among breeds – were attributed to pit bulls, according to the American Animal Hospital Association.