Rudy Eugene (left), Ronald Poppo (right)
MIAMI (USA TODAY) -- Doctors say a homeless man lost almost half his face, including his nose, in a bizarre and brutal face-chewing attack on the Miami causeway, but is awake and alert, The Miami Herald reports.
Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center also released two photos today of Ronald Poppo showing the upper two-thirds of his face covered in scabs.
In one photograph, Poppo is walking down a hospital hallway, supported by hospital staff on either side of him.
He is missing his nose and both eye sockets are covered – one with gauze and one with what appears to be a skin graft. Doctors hope that he can regain vision in his right eye, The Herald says.
The newspaper reports that Poppo suffered a brain injury during the attack, much like the victim of a car crash.
The attacker, identified as Rudy Eugene was shot and killed by police during the assault on May 26.
Emergency callers reported seeing a man swinging naked from a light pole on Miami's MacArthur Causeway a few minutes before the attack, the Associated Press reports.
Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene stripping Poppo and pummeling him before appearing to lie on top of him.