A pregnant Kansas woman needed 14 hours of reconstructive facial surgery after two dogs attacked her at her apartment complex, and now she's calling out the owner who let it happen.

Audrey Austin was 24 weeks pregnant with twins on July 17 when two pit bulls set upon her at Highland Park Townhomes in Topeka, Kansas. The attack left her with severe facial injuries so disorienting she could not tell where the blood was coming from. A responding Topeka police officer shot and killed one of the dogs. The second was taken into custody. Austin survived, but only after a friend intervened by physically tackling the animals off her.

Nearly a month later, Austin broke her silence for the first time, directing her anger squarely at the dogs' owner, Tina Buck. Buck faces criminal charges but posted bond and walked free. Austin, now 28 weeks along and expecting to deliver her twins in November, says the owner's negligence nearly killed her and her unborn children.

Austin thought the blood was coming from her stomach

Austin told WIBW she was so disoriented during the attack that her first instinct was to shield her unborn twins.

"I didn't know where the blood was coming from. I didn't know it was coming from my face. I thought it was coming from my stomach, so I was blocking my stomach the best that I can."

The blood was coming from her face. She nearly lost an eye and her nose, the New York Post reported, and required at least 14 hours of reconstructive surgery to piece her face back together. She has undergone multiple additional surgeries and hospital visits since July 17.

Her partner, CJ Austin, described how close she came to dying.

"If it wasn't for the gentleman, our friend who stepped in, he said the dogs would have killed her."

That friend tackled the dogs to pull them off Audrey. A Topeka police officer arrived and shot one of the animals dead. The other dog remains in custody. Without both interventions, the friend's and the officer's, Austin and her twins might not be alive.

Buck posted bond and awaits a September court date

Tina Buck, the dogs' owner, was issued a municipal citation for dangerous dogs. But the charges did not stop there. Shawnee County Jail booking records show Buck was also booked on charges of interfering with law enforcement and having dogs running at large.

Buck posted bond. She is due back in court in September. The charges she faces so far, a municipal citation and two criminal counts, strike many observers as modest given the severity of the injuries Austin sustained. Whether prosecutors pursue additional charges remains an open question.

Animal attacks on unsuspecting people are a grim recurring reality across the country. In a recent incident at a Mexican resort, a man was killed by a crocodile while bystanders struggled to help, a reminder that when dangerous animals roam freely near people, the consequences can be fatal.

Fourteen hours of surgery and a message to the owner

Austin addressed Buck directly in her first public statement, making clear she holds the owner, not the animals, responsible.

"You had hurt not just one life, but you hurt three lives. You almost cost three lives that night... not just mine but my twins."

Austin also pushed back against any blanket condemnation of dogs, drawing a sharp line between the animals and the person who raised them.

"For those who have dogs, just know that there are dogs out there that are sweet and innocent. It's the owners and how you raise them."

That distinction matters. Austin is not asking for a breed ban or a policy debate. She is asking for something simpler: that people who own dangerous animals be held accountable when those animals maim a pregnant woman in her own apartment complex. It is a basic demand for responsibility, the kind that should not require a near-death experience to enforce.

Incidents where ordinary people suffer life-altering harm through someone else's recklessness are disturbingly common. A recent case in Oakland left a woman in critical condition after two young boys took their parents' car on a joyride, another situation where adults' failures put an innocent person in the hospital.

Austin went back to the same apartment complex

Perhaps the most striking detail is what Austin did after weeks of surgeries and recovery. She went home, to Highland Park Townhomes, the same complex where the attack happened.

She is 28 weeks pregnant now. Her twins are reported healthy. She expects to deliver in November. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help cover her medical costs during recovery.

Austin summed up her resolve plainly:

"No dog is going to keep me from going home."

She also addressed the setback head-on, refusing to let the attack define her future or her children's.

"You might have knocked me down; that might have been a setback, but who I am today is not going to destroy me or what I am going to be like after my twins are here."

Survival stories like Austin's, where someone fights through a sudden, violent ordeal, resonate widely. A Texas teen bitten by a shark off Galveston recently faced a similar fight for his life after a split-second encounter turned dangerous. Austin's recovery, though, is far from over. She still faces additional medical procedures, and the emotional toll of returning to the place where she was nearly killed is something no surgery can fix.

Meanwhile, the legal process for Buck grinds forward at its own pace. A municipal citation. Two criminal charges. Bond posted. A September court date. For a woman who needed her face reconstructed over 14 hours of surgery, who nearly lost her eyes and her nose, who was pregnant with twins, that timeline feels slow.

Workplace and industrial dangers also leave workers and first responders critically injured when safety failures go unaddressed. The common thread is always the same: someone failed to control a known risk, and someone else paid the price.

Audrey Austin is not asking for sympathy. She is asking for accountability, from the owner who let two dangerous dogs run loose near a pregnant woman's front door. Whether the courts deliver that accountability in September will say a lot about how seriously Topeka takes the safety of the people who live there.

When an expectant mother has to fight for her life and her children's because a neighbor could not control her animals, the system owes her more than a citation and a bond receipt.