86-year-old Houston man fighting for life after dog attack

Loren Maxey in serious condition after infection from bite

HOUSTON – What started as a dog bite, now has an elderly man fighting for his life.

His granddaughter said it's an emergency that should have never have happened.

At 86, Loren Maxey has his daily rituals.

"He checks the mail every day, two seconds after it comes," Jessica Brooks, Maxey's granddaughter, said.

On Aug. 1, Maxey was checking the mail in his New Caney neighborhood, but as he turned to go home, Brooks said one of the neighbor's dogs raced toward her grandfather and bit him on the calf.

"The really scary thing and one of the reasons I am so upset about this; the mailbox he was checking, that's also a bus stop for children," Brooks said.

"The dog latched on twice and he twisted and stumbled and kept going as fast as he could back to the house," Brooks said.

Maxey made it back to the house, then to the hospital to be bandaged up.

But his ordeal was far from over.

"It turned into a massive infection, entire leg turned black," Brooks said.

Brooks said her grandfather is in serious condition at Memorial Hermann Northeast. She also says this isn't the first time her family has dealt with this dog.

"In March, there was an incident with my 5-year-old niece and my grandmother. The dog pinned them into a fence and was going to attack them," Brooks said.

The owner of the dog declined to speak with us. Montgomery County Animal Control officials say they did quarantine the dog, but it showed no signs of rabies. At that point they cited the owner and returned the dog.