A woman who had recently bonded with her boyfriend’s rescue dog claimed it tore her nose off because it was startled by her teeth whitening kit.

Olivia Quast, 30, bent down to feed rescue dog Bentley last month when he suddenly lunged at her face.

A self-confessed ‘cat person’, she said she had previously never loved a dog until she got to know her partner’s six-year-old pet.

The artist, from Middletown in Connecticut, US, said: ‘I had no idea he was going to lunge at me, it was a total shock.

‘We didn’t have a poor relationship, the night before he snuggled in my bed [and] I tucked him into all my blankets.

‘The only thing that made sense was that this UV light [from the mouth guard] triggered something in his brain. He lunged, and he got my nose first, I was in shock and disbelief.’

Olivia, who has a rare connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), said the pointer, pitbull and bulldog mix mongrel then attacked her again, leaving her arm ‘mangled’.

‘I just stared at him. It never dawned on me that he was going to keep attacking me, because why would he?’ she added.

‘I put my hand on my nose and he lunged at my arm twice more.

‘I thought, “I’m not going to play tug of war with a creature whose favourite game is tug of war – with my arm.” So I just let him bite me.

‘I was actively going into shock.’

She then ran to the bathroom, locked herself inside and called her family for help.

‘I stayed standing, but I felt my entire being drop to the floor, the room spun, it’s like everything was in hyper focus and spinning and it was pure agony,’ she said.

‘I yelled, and not a panicky yell, like a deep, earthy, guttural scream.’

What is EDS?

According to the NHS, Ehlers-Danlos syndromes – or EDS – are a group of rare conditions that affect the skin’s connective tissue.

Symptoms of EDS include joint hypermobility, stretchy skin and skin fragility, meaning that sufferers will often bruise easily.

The condition is usually inherited, and people with EDS are advised to be careful when engaging in activities that could have a risk of injury.

Her family called an ambulance and Olivia was rushed to to Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.

Her septum and cartilage had been torn off by the dog, but the bridge and outside of her nostrils remained intact.

She has already had surgery and now has two plates, eight screws and two pins in her arm.

Olivia also has several fractures and significant ligament and nerve damage in her hand which may take up to a year to heal.

Her family are raising money on GoFundMe to help pay for her facial operations, which may not be covered by insurance as they could be considered cosmetic.

Plastic surgeons will take cartilage from her ear and skin from her forehead to fix her nose.

‘I’m a cat person, this is the only dog I’ve ever loved,’ Olivia added.

‘I didn’t like dogs before, and then I started dating someone who is a dog person, and had one, and this dog changed my life. I now like dogs.

‘I’m so grateful that people can help me, [and that] I’m alive.’

Her partner Graeme Stasyshyn, 44, who had owned Bentley for four years, made the decision to put his pet to sleep shortly after what happened.

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