A boy was left with a gap in his head after his scalp was ripped open during a gruesome dog attack.

Hunter Kilbourn was just 10 years old when he got attacked by two angry pit bulls.

His mother, Melody, who works as a nurse, had let him go to their neighbour's house for the day to play with one of the children when the horrifying incident took place.

Now, she’s warning other parents to be wary of others' pets.

“He went to the neighbour’s house to play video games with his friend,” Melody, a nurse from San Fransisco, California, told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk

“He was let into their home and began to go upstairs.

“There was one dog that was at the top of the stairs, and it lunged down at him and started attacking him.

“At that time the second dog ran inside from the backyard and ran up the stairs and began attacking the back of his head and arms.”

Melody was at home getting ready to leave the house to pick up Hunter when the neighbour ran over to tell her the horrible news.

While the horrified mum called 911, Hunter’s friend’s dad carried the child over with a towel over his bloody face.

She said: “That moment traumatised me forever, my son was missing half his face, most of his ear, his eyebrow, his eyelid.

“I was even able to see his skull behind his eye.

“The other side of his face was missing a chunk of his cheek.

“Hunter looked at me and said ‘Mama am I going to die?’

“The ambulance and firefighters soon arrived, and told me that they believed he had a fractured skull as well as bites on his arms, face, and back of his head.”

Hunter was rushed to a nearby park where a helicopter was waiting, before flying him to UC Davis Health, on 11 August 2013, which is California’s only level 1 trauma centre.

He was taken into surgery straight away, with six more operations to follow including skin grafts and reconstructive surgery.

Doctors also took skin from Hunter’s groin and skin grafted the right side of his face, making him a new eyelid, as well as reattaching his lower left ear and lobe.

She said: “The surgeries were all successful, and after a lot of prayer he eventually regained movement in his face.

“Though the vision in his eye has been affected, and he can only slightly see out of that one.

“After he was discharged from the hospital, we had weekly appointments as well as a few more surgeries, which included scalp revision.

“The dogs took out such an enormous chunk of his scalp that his scalp needed to be sliced open and re-closed to be tighter.”

Finally, Hunter was discharged, however, he was too scared to go home, so went to stay with his grandmother for a while.

The dog owners reportedly refused to put the pets down, so Melody went to a city hearing to plead her case in front of a panel – and won.

Her son, who has attended therapy for PTSD and trauma healing, was compensated with the pet owner’s “trust fund from the home insurance policy”.

She said: “It wasn’t much and not nearly what it should be for the long-lasting life effects it has done on his physical and mental health.

“The dog owners were more concerned about keeping their dogs alive and fought hard to not have their dogs put down.

“But I got a lawyer and fought back.

“I spoke at a city hearing and explained how dangerous the dogs were, what happened, and the damage they did to my son.”

“But that [case] was closed years ago.”

However, Melody’s neighbour soon bought two new pit bulls – prompting her family to move to a new area.

A decade later, Hunter, 20, has finally recovered and no longer needs. medical follow-ups, but will live with his scars forever.

And while he is still afraid of strangers' canines, the plucky young man is actually considering getting a dog of his own.

Melody added: “We do not own any dogs but are okay being around familiar dogs of certain breeds, that belong to our friends.

“We do cross the street if someone is walking their dog.

“However, besides the PTSD and trauma, Hunter has recently said how he would like a dog of his own in the future.”

ENDS