Man happy to be alive after pit bull attack

“I couldn’t believe I wasn’t dead,” James Chapple said Wednesday after being moved out of the intensive care unit at the Regional Medical Center where he was admitted last Friday after the attack. “I’m going to church every day when I get out of here and talk to the man upstairs.”

Chapple, 59, had just gotten off a bus and was walking home at about 10:30 p.m. when the dogs ran out from an auto repair business, knocked him down and started biting.

From his hospital bed, Chapple recounted what he remembered of the attack. He yelled for help but no cars stopped. A pedestrian grabbed a stick and hit the dogs only to leave when he couldn’t get them to stop.

“I was kicking and screaming at them to let me go, but they kept dragging me ? they had my hand and wouldn’t let go,” Chapple said.

He passed out and didn’t wake up until he was in an ambulance.

Although doctors had to amputate his lower left arm, they saved his severely damaged right arm. Chapple also suffered bites on his legs and one ear.

A police report said the attack ended when two people beat the dogs away, and the pit bulls went back into the business. Memphis Animal Services captured them inside the business and will euthanize them, authorities said.

A co-owner of the business said the dogs belonged to his partner and were guarding the shop, which has been burglarized repeatedly.