DES MOINES, Iowa – It doesn't matter to Deb Newman if the old gallon of milk in her refrigerator goes bad.

It's one of the most recent reminders she has of her son, who could down 10 gallons of the stuff a week.

“I can’t seem to even look at the gallon of milk in the fridge right now," she said with a sad chuckle Thursday. “It’s been in there ever since he passed.”

Robert Joseph Quick, 33, known to family and friends as "Joe," died in eastern Iowa on May 31 while saving his small child from an aggressive dog. His 5-year-old daughter was bitten, but she survived and is recovering from the attack.

"Mr. Quick had defended his daughter and undoubtedly saved her life by his actions," according to a news release from the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

After surviving pneumonia as an infant and a car crash that broke his neck and robbed him of his left eye, the burly, playful man died in a Fort Madison hospital after the fight with a boxer hound.

The dog injured another man during the same incident. Law enforcement shot and killed the dog to stop that attack, then found Quick, who asked them to take care of his injured daughter.

"His daughters and all his kids meant the world to him," Newman said, her voice splintering with emotion. "He always told everybody, ‘I would die for my kids,’ and by God he did. He died for his kids.”

Trip to Fort Madison turns deadly

Quick, a father of four, brought two of his children with him that day to retrieve an inoperable car from someone in Fort Madison. His mother said his daughters went inside the home and were attacked by a "very big" boxer.

“Joey ran into the house, and I guess he was the only one strong enough to pull the dog off," Newman said, recalling what she was told by a witness who was dog-sitting the animal in the home. "Joey threw the dog out of the house."

“I don't know whether he died from the dog bites," Newman said. "I know he had a heart attack. Then again, so would I if I saw what was happening.”

'Survivor' loses his final battle

Newman, a dog lover herself, said she's upset that an aggressive animal ended her son's life. Quick, she said, was "exceptionally" strong.

“He (talked about his near-death encounter) all the time," Newman said. "He had so many obstacles. He was a fighter.”

He was in the pediatric intensive care unit at a Burlington hospital and had a "1 in 1,000" chance of leaving alive as an infant, his mother said. He was hospitalized for about two months. But he made it.

Decades later, on Memorial Day 2018, Quick was in a head-on vehicle collision. He suffered a broken neck, had a rod put in his right leg and 11 metal plates in his face, and lost his left eye. But he made it.

Newman said her son suffered a host of traumatic injuries in his struggle with the dog.

"It’s going to take a long time to come to terms with it. My son is no longer alive because of that dog," she said. "Yeah, I’m angry.”

Milk, a muscle car and other memories

Quick had recently moved into his mother's home in Dallas City, Illinois. His estranged wife and their daughters live about 8 miles west, just across the Iowa border in West Point.

Newman said Quick, who was trying to get disability income after his accident, helped around her house by working on cars for family and friends. Quick was skilled with his hands: He rebuilt a Monte Carlo his mother still drives today.

"That car’s going to be sitting at the funeral behind the hearse," she said. “We loved it. I still drive it to work, and I don’t care how much gas it drinks. That car’s gorgeous, and I’ll never get rid of it.

"We were both underneath the hood and it was great. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Newman said her family is trying to adjust to its new normal. No matter how broken she feels, she has three other adult children and 11 grandkids depending on her.

She focuses on the positives when she's down, like the memories she has of watching her "baby" cuddle with her grandchildren in her home.

“(I'll miss) so many things. His smile, his love for everybody, his hugs," she said. "I keep expecting him to call me and say, ‘What’s up, Mamacita.’ That’s how he always answered the phone.”

But the anger lingers. Newman isn't sure what should happen to the people who were caring for the dog that attacked her son and grandchildren, but she does think they should be held accountable.

The investigation continues and criminal charges have not been ruled out, but both families are being given time to grieve, Lee County Chief Deputy Will Conlee said Friday.

Quick's daughter, the girl who was originally attacked, has been recovering well, Newman said. The 5-year-old told her grandmother she still likes big dogs.

“She wasn't told (about her father's death) right away," Newman said. "She was finally told the other day that her daddy’s sleeping in heaven. It’s kind of hard to tell a young girl, and they don’t want her to feel guilty, so he’s sleeping in heaven.”

A GoFundMe has been started to help pay for the funeral and to care for Quick's four children, all of whom live in Iowa.

Newman will enjoy her memories of her oldest son, even if she can't quite bring herself to open her fridge.

That he saved his children is "the only comfort I've got right now," she said. "That's the kind of person he is. I know he’s a hero."

Follow Tyler Davis on Twitter: @TDavisDMR.