A second person has come forward to say he was attacked by the same pit bull that was one of three dogs to attack an Oak Harbor girl last week.

The 12-year-old girl attacked by three pit bulls Feb. 5 is in good spirits as she recovers from her injuries, according to her father.

“It was a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Merl Naumowicz, an active duty member of the Navy.

Naumowicz is stationed in Nebraska, but took emergency medical leave and flew to Whidbey after learning about the attack. His daughter called him from the hospital and talked to him before she was sedated.

Naumowicz said her right hand and forearm were most severely injured since she was using it to stop the dogs from biting her face. He said the doctors at first didn’t know if they would be able to save her thumb because of all the damage; she still doesn’t have feeling in her thumb.

In addition, the dogs bit the girl on her other hand and her feet. She sustained serious scratch marks on her chest and on her lip, according to her father.

Naumowicz said nobody has any idea why the dogs attacked her, though he’s heard unconfirmed reports they bit people on three previous occasions that weren’t reported to police. He said his daughter has been at the home where it occurred before and the dogs know her.

According to Naumowicz, his 19-year-old daughter drove his younger daughter to an apartment on Midway Boulevard to pick up a vacuum. He said a child inside the apartment opened the door and let the dogs out; all three of the dogs attacked the girl at the same time.

Naumowicz was told that the owner promised to have the dogs euthanized.

Meanwhile, Oak Harbor resident Carlos Smith saw the story about the girl’s plight and said something similar happened to him last November when he visited the same apartment.

“I got attacked by the same dog,” he said, referring to the male dog named Tank.

He said he went to the apartment to visit the boyfriend of the woman living there, who was a friend of his.

“I wasn’t there two seconds before I was attacked,” he said. Two of the dogs were in a cage, he said, but Tank came running toward him from a back room and bit into his hand.

“I never called the cops, I went right to the hospital,” Smith said. “The guy was crying, ‘Don’t call the cops on me.’”

Smith said a doctor put 13 stitches in his hand, but he still suffers from nerve damage and he’s still paying off the $4,000 hospital bill. He lost his job because he can’t extend two of his fingers without pulling on them.

After reading about the attack on the girl, Smith decided it was time to act.

“I’m going to file a lawsuit,” he said.