Road to Recovery: Michigan boy with autism mauled by dogs after running away, entering neighbor’s home

By Sarah Michals, Kent Saunders

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    ROSEVILLE, Michigan (WXYZ) — Britney Carucci shared with us a video taken on an iPhone by her 6-year-old son Zaiden in Roseville on October 17th.

Zaiden has autism, is nonverbal, and loves to sing.

In the video, you can hear a few notes from Zaiden as he runs out of his grandmother’s home, directly into a neighbor’s house.

“He ran out of his grandmother’s home, and the neighbor’s front door was unlocked, and he didn’t stop for a second, he literally ran out of his grandmother’s home and right into their house,” said Carucci.

No person was home at the neighbor’s house, but you can see in some of the video that two dogs were.

Carucci said that when Zaiden ran into the neighbor’s house, he shut the door behind him, and was brutally mauled by the two dogs inside.

Zaiden still had the iPhone and was still recording, in the video Carucci said, “You see the dogs jumping on him, he’s screaming, a scream I haven’t heard since he’s been born.”

Carucci said Zaiden was staying with his grandma when this happened, his grandma was busy giving one of his siblings a bath and realized Zaiden was missing within minutes.

She then quickly called 911.

“The police actually found him,” said Carucci. “They did find my iPhone and his location was pinging up across the street.”

Once in the hospital, Carucci said; “He also had to be intubated for two days because of his pain, so he also was on a ventilator for two days because of how extensive the pain was.”

We’re not sharing all the photos of Zaiden’s injuries because they are extremely graphic and upsetting.

“He does have fake tear ducts because they ripped down his eyelids,” said Carucci. “He also has 80-something bite wounds all over his arms.”

She shared that Zaiden will now need extensive long-term medical care including lifelong skin grafts, physical, and occupational therapy.

Carucci said she is leaving her job to care for him full-time at home. Loved ones have started this GoFundMe to help pay the medical bills.

“If you can’t contribute to the GoFundMe, just share,” said Carucci. “Share Zaiden’s story so it gets out there, for even other parents that have autistic children. They know their children elope and to the extent that something could happen like this.”

Zaiden running away like this is called elopement behavior. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Autism Association (NAA), 49% of autistic children elope or run away.

Carucci shared that she has special locks at her home to help keep Zaiden safe, and they will now be installing them at his grandma’s house.

“He will make a full recovery, it’s just when and how long,” said Carucci.

Eventually, she plans to slowly reintroduce Zaiden to animals, on his terms, “Just so it’s not a lifelong thing, because he really does love dogs.”

Thursday Carruci shared another video with us, one of Zaiden in the hospital recovering.

In the video, you can hear that he has started to sing again.

A survivor, Carucci hopes Zaiden’s story will raise awareness for other parents of children with autism.

“Just to be more aware of the surroundings of our autistic children and we know that we can’t keep our eyes off them,” said Carucci. “For not even a second.”

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