Dog Bite - Occupational - My Wife Was Bit

Location: Northern Virginia

Summary version, my wife is a receptionist/assistant at a Vet clinic. This past summer she was bit by a clients dog, after the appointment had ended and they were getting ready to walk out.

Should mention, she was bit across the entire left side of her face, the dog was actively attached to her and trying to kill her, 30 stitches in her face right up to the bottom of her eye.

The owners were shocked and appalled, "he's never done this before", Well, he has, and he has a history we've since found out. This WAS preventable, the dog had an aggression history, and a muzzle would have prevented all of this. The dog was thankfully put down, but my wife is STRUGGLING with work now. She's not new to this, she's been working small and large animal for 15 years. She doesn't want to walk in the building, she doesn't want to see dogs, she can't walk in the exam room this all went down in.

We are NOT the litigious type, but this is a real problem affecting her career now. Finding out after the fact that the animal did have an aggressive history has been a tough pill to swallow.

My question - is this worth pursuing? I am truly concerned that this is having a very real negative effect on her ability to earn a living, which is certainly having the parallel of negatively impacting self-worth etc. (I absolutely do my part to encourage etc, to the point I've told her to quit so she doesn't have to deal with the psychological part, but my wife absolutely has to contribute, it's just how she is)

I am just very unsure what to do at this point.