Rural Carrier Associate Byron Johnson was delivering mail on a June day in Lumberton, NC, when he came upon a boy being mauled by a dog while a family member was trying in vain to stop the attack.
Johnson safely intervened and repelled the dog, and emergency responders were dispatched to the scene.
The victim was transported more than 100 miles to a hospital in Chapel Hill for treatment of facial bite wounds that jeopardized his eyesight.
There are “no permanent injuries, thanks to Byron,” said Lumberton Postmaster Angel Jones. “If he had not stopped and helped, the child could have been killed.”