COUSIN OF ECM PHOTOGRAPHER MAULED BY PACK OF PIT BULL DOGS; FUNDS NEEDED TO HELP PAY MEDICAL BILLS

By Miriam Raftery

December 9, 2024 (San Diego) – A 15-year-old San Marcos girl is fighting for her life after suffering serious injuries. After running away from a treatment facility in North County, she was found in Mendocino “on the side of a highway, barely alive, some 600 miles away. Marielynn Watson was the victim of a horrific attack from a pack of off-leash dogs,” says Ron Logan, an East County Magazine photographer and cousin of the injured teen.

Logan, along with Marielynn’s father, David Watson, have started a GoFundMe site to help cover medical expenses for Marielynn, who remains hospitalized after multiple surgeries, with more needed.

“When I first saw her, I almost passed out,” Watson told ECM, adding that he was unemployed at the time of the attack by several pit bull dogs and has no insurance to cover his daughter’s medical bills. In addition to worrying about his daughter’s health, he is concerned that he could face financial ruin as the medical bills mount.

“She has wounds all over her body.  She was damn near eaten alive,” says Watson. “She is in a horrible amount of pain.”  The tops of her ears were sheared off. She suffered a head injury, as well as severe dog bites on her arms, legs, and buttocks.

At first, doctors thought they would have to amputate Marielynn’s right arm, since the dogs chewed up her tricep muscle.  Fortunately, doctors were able to transplant a muscle from her back to save her arm, though she will likely lose some fingers and has suffered an infection. Her legs have severe wounds that “look like a sandwich with bites out of it,” Watson says. Fortunately, Marielynn was able to cover her face with a hoodie, sparing her facial damage. She has been able to sit up and begin taking steps, but has a long road to recovery.

Marielynn is currently at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center, where her father has been by her side. Her grandmother, who lives in San Diego’s College area, has also been up to visit.  The family hopes to be able to transfer Marielynn to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego in the near future.

Watson is upset that his daughter, who has run away before, was able to flee a residential youth home in San Marcos, and that the Sheriff’s department indicated they could not send out a missing-person-at-risk notification statewide because a social worker needed to provide information was on vacation. He praises the RAD movement for helping to find Marielynn’s location, but unfortunately too late to prevent the dog attack, which he says was halted by a person firing a gun to save Marielynn’s life.

He says of his daughter, “I am so thankful she’s alive. She is a fighter....This is a horrible way to learn a lesson, but she has learned from this and taken some accountability. We’re going to move on and heal.”

But he wants the dog owners and those who he believes didn’t do enough to locate Marielynn before the attack to ultimately be held accountable. “For me, there will never be peace until there is justice for my daughter,” he says.

Marielynn dreams of going to Disneyland with friends once she recovers. “She’s never been to Disneyland,” her dad told ECM.  He said she also finds joy in collecting MiniBrands toys, and hopes to someday start a small business.

You can help Marielynn by donating generously to help cover her medical bills at  her GoFundMe site.