Paul Striegl Memorial Pitbull Attack San Antonio

Bitten, sick, dying, dead. This tragic end didn’t have to be. Dogs brought about this end. It’s not enough that you’re in your own backyard minding your own business, when you are viciously, gruesomely attacked by a Pitbull, in San Antonio, Texas.

Week 1, countless visits to the OR, operating room, just to stabilize him and secure his extremities. First day, stabilize the patient. Second day comes the next visit to the OR to clean out the wound, so the docs can see what they’re dealing with. Third day, they decide that one of his hands, including his arm, is not viable. They must amputate it. This whole time my brother, Paul Striegl Jr., was in the best of spirits. Sweet to the ladies, joking with the guys. He wants to give you a high five with his amputated arm. He’s telling jokes and wondering when he will get to leave. He’s trying to figure out how he’s going to hold a fishing pole again. He wasn’t concerned about his missing arm. He wasn’t mad at his neighbors. He wasn’t resentful towards the dogs. He had actually hoped that the dogs were okay.

Week 2, near daily visits to the OR for clean outs. They reopen his stitches and make sure everything is healing properly, his amputated arm, the right arm with deep wounds, and the stitches across his abdomen. Clean out, hangs out with family, talking and as positive as can be. One night, as a friend is visiting him, he begins to speak gibberish. Turns out he had a stroke due to the trauma. He seems to recover from this and is as talkative as can be. The first two weeks weren’t so bad. We all thought he’s going to be fine. He’s resilient, and he’ll pull through.

Week 3, his O2 drops and they put him on a ventilator as a precaution. He goes back to the OR, intubated. He has a fungal infection in his tissue, presumably from the dog bite. He is sedated from trying to struggle with the tubes. This fungal infection attacks his wounds, necrotic tissue is removed. More of his amputated arm is removed. Fungal growth is difficult to detect and they have to continuously go back to remove the infection they can see, take cultures, and do biopsies.

Week 4, this fungal infection is the reason that his vital organs begin to fail. By some miracle, he still had a chance at turning around. Just a couple of days later, it is determined that he is not going to turn around, and that decisions must be made. Machines are supporting his organ functions. We just want him to be comfortable in the end. He’s been through too much already. We say our goodbyes as he takes his last breath Sunday, October 1st, 6:30pm.

Paul lived a simple life. He didn’t want much, he didn’t expect much. He has always been creative and built things from nothing. He put crazy lawn mower engines on bikes, go-carts, whatever you can think of. He needed something, he made it himself. He rode motorcycles ever since I could remember. He lived life to the fullest, way more than I ever have. He pretty much did what he wanted, within legal limits, most of the time anyway. He was as stubborn as one can possibly be. You couldn’t tell him anything, because he didn’t care. He did what he wanted, when he wanted. He was independent. He was a free spirit.

Would he have died? Sure, some day, but not today, not this week, not this month, or even this year. Something has to be done about these vicious dog attacks. Now I’m not passing blame onto the dogs, my brother wouldn’t have wanted that. We are doing this GoFundMe for Paul’s memorial. Let’s give him one last hurrah. There’s no point in trying to get something from the neighbor, who owned these dogs. As the saying goes, “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.”

Thank you for listening. Please spay and neuter your pets. Treat them with kindness and respect. I’d also like to thank all of the staff at BAMC. They have been the best, kindest, and most empathetic. Thank you truly.

*Memorial Service is TBD, as the ME’s haven’t released him yet.