Leasa Garrett had barely started her new job as a private home health nurse when a dog attack in a Delaware County laundry room left the 59-year-old fighting for her life, with severe wounds to her face, neck, arms and wrist that now require multiple surgeries to repair. She had just met her first patient and the patient's husband and brought the woman home from physical therapy when the attack happened.
Garrett was flown to a Tulsa hospital following the mauling, according to News On 6. The dog that attacked her was a Komondor, sometimes called a mop dog for its distinctive corded white coat. According to the American Kennel Club, the breed is an ancient Hungarian livestock guardian that can weigh 80 to over 100 pounds and is known for an independent, fiercely protective temperament.
That temperament traces back to the breed's original purpose. Komondors were bred in Hungary to guard sheep flocks against large predators without waiting for human direction, and the same instinct means they can treat their home as their flock, reacting forcefully to unfamiliar people entering the space, per Showsight Magazine. That history offers a possible explanation for why the animal turned on Garrett just as she was arriving to care for a patient it didn't know.
Bitten in the Laundry Room
Garrett said she was attacked in the laundry room of the home and described the moment the dog turned on her. “I started fighting for my life,” she said, according to the same News On 6 report. The dog bit her neck and arms, and she now needs a skin graft to repair her face along with separate surgery to address damage to her wrist.
Her skin graft surgery is scheduled for Friday, and she has a second surgery lined up for next week to address nerve damage, the report notes. Garrett will be out of work during her recovery and expects to undergo months of occupational therapy afterward. She has spent 36 years working for various companies in the nursing field, and said the incident reflects a hard truth of the job: “You never know what you're going to walk into.”
Owner's Fate and Accountability Questions
Garrett said the dog was reportedly euthanized after the attack, according to her own account relayed in the same report. She hopes the dog's owner will be held accountable. News On 6 said it reached out to both the dog's owner and the Delaware County District Attorney's Office for comment, but neither had responded as of publication.
Oklahoma law could give investigators more than one path forward. Under state statute 4 O.S. § 42.1, dog owners are strictly liable for damages when their animal bites or injures someone lawfully present on public or private property without provocation, according to Justia Law. A separate statute, 4 O.S. § 42.4, allows criminal misdemeanor charges — punishable by up to a year in county jail — against an owner who permits a dangerous dog to run at large or aggressively attack a lawful visitor, per the same legal reference.
It remains unclear whether the Delaware County District Attorney's Office will pursue those criminal charges, and whether official rabies testing was completed following the dog's reported euthanization. Oklahoma Department of Health regulations generally require any dog that bites a human to undergo a 10-day rabies quarantine under veterinary or animal control supervision, and protocol calls for brain tissue testing if the animal dies or is euthanized during that window, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health. It is unknown whether that testing has occurred in this case.
A Dangerous Job With Few Safeguards
Garrett's ordeal underscores a broader hazard facing mobile healthcare workers who enter private homes without knowing what awaits them. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has noted that home healthcare workers face heightened safety risks precisely because they operate in uncontrolled residential settings that can include hostile animals and other hazards agencies often can't screen for in advance. Federal data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows healthcare and social assistance workers experience among the highest rates of nonfatal occupational injuries requiring time away from work, with offsite visits presenting their own elevated challenges.
The medical road ahead for Garrett reflects how severe dog bite injuries typically are. More than 57% of hospitalizations caused by dog bites involve surgical procedures such as wound debridement and skin grafting, according to data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Nationally, more than 28,000 reconstructive surgeries are performed each year because of dog bite trauma, with facial bites carrying particularly high risks of nerve damage and permanent scarring, per a systematic review published on PMC.
Garrett said that if she returns to home health or hospice nursing, she would carry a Taser and pepper spray for protection. It's a decision that speaks to how unpredictable the work can be — and how little control nurses like her have once they step through a stranger's front door.
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