LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The doctor who led last month's reattachment surgery for a girl whose scalp was partially chewed off her head by the family dog said Emily Stinnett has a long road to recovery.

Stinnett (pictured, left), 4, was lost part of her scalp last month when the pit bull attacked as she played outside with her stepsister at their home in Hodgenville, Ky.

Dr. Mark Chariker, a plastic surgeon, spoke publicly Thursday for the first time since the operation, Louisville television station WLKY reported.

"She's aware she was attacked by the dog," Chariker said. "She hasn't seen her injuries to date, and so she's not fully aware and hasn't had to adjust to that."

Chariker added that while the child will recover, it will take a long time.

"It'll be difficult. There's no going around that," he said. "And so with our pediatric psychiatrists and her parents, we'll all try and support in that way. She'll recover, but it will be a difficult journey."

Chariker (pictured, right) also provided graphic details of the girl's injuries.

"There were quite deep gashes that went into the soft tissue of the abdomen and the back," he said. "Our pediatric surgeon spent quite a bit of time exploring them to make sure they didn't enter into the interdominal cavity."

While the dog bit Stinnett's stomach and back, the injury to her scalp was the most complicated. Chariker said the child's scalp surgery is the first he's performed on a child. He said he remembers getting the partially digested scalp from a cooler, after the pit bull was put down and had his stomach cut open.

"I took the scalp into another operating room and started working on the scalp, and finding vessels cleansing the scalp, and trying to prepare it for replantation," Chariker said.