Family launches fundraiser after expectant mom of twins mauled by pit bulls in Texas—they attacked her face while she protected her stomach

A pregnant woman suffered horrific facial injuries after she was mauled by two pit bulls while shielding her unborn twins during a brutal attack that left her fighting for her sight.

Audrey Suarez, 31, from Kansas, was walking to a relative's home at the Highland Park Townhomes in Topeka on July 17 when two pit bulls were let loose during an unrelated altercation and viciously attacked her. Suarez, who was 23 weeks pregnant with twins, instinctively wrapped her arms around her stomach to protect her unborn babies as the dogs repeatedly bit her face. Her partner, CJ Austin, said the attack left Suarez with a broken pinky after she refused to stop protecting her stomach. "She had ended up breaking her pinky because when the dog was attacking her, all she could think about was covering her stomach, so the dog wouldn't get to her stomach and hurt the twins," Austin told WIBW.

The attack nearly cost Suarez her eye. She underwent a grueling 10-hour reconstructive operation to rebuild her face, followed by a further four-hour surgery after one of the dogs lacerated her iris. "She had a 10-hour surgery on her face to put her face back together, and then she had a 4-hour surgery on her eye because the dog, when he bit her, it lacerated her iris," Austin said.

Austin said Suarez would likely have been killed had a bystander not rushed in to help. "If it wasn't for the gentleman — our friend who stepped in — he said the dogs would have killed her," he said. When police arrived, one officer shot and killed one of the dogs. The second was taken into quarantine. Police said the attack unfolded while an unrelated disturbance was taking place nearby. According to investigators, a child connected to one of the people involved in the altercation let the two dogs out moments before Suarez walked past.

The owner of the dogs was issued a citation. "You just mess somebody's whole life up," Austin said. "She's going to be scarred for the rest of her life. She has nightmares of that dog attacking her. She wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, 'Get him off me. Get him off me.' That's traumatizing her." Suarez's family has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover mounting medical expenses, lost wages and the cost of traveling out of state for specialist reconstructive surgeries.

"Audrey was simply taking a walk through her apartment complex when her life changed in an instant," the family wrote, adding that the overwhelming emotional and physical toll serves as "a heartbreaking reminder of the risks posed by irresponsible ownership of dangerous animals." The family also asked the public to keep Suarez and her unborn children in their prayers as she continues what is expected to be a long and difficult recovery.