A MUM says half her face “fell off” after she tripped over her dog and landed on her nose.
Shelley Puchalsky had her wounds stitched up but later contracted a flesh-eating disease which left her unable to leave the house for two years.
Kennedy NewsShelley Puchalsky said half her face ‘fell’ off after she tripped while out with her dog[/caption]
Kennedy NewsShelley, 39, pictured in 2016 before her accident[/caption]
The 39-year-old said the infection “ate away” at her skin so much she had a gaping mango-sized hole in her forehead.
It then grew so rapidly that her bone was exposed, travelling up her scalp and devouring chunks of her skin and hair, she claims.
Shelley, a former estate agent, was eventually diagnosed with osteomyelitis – a bone infection in her skull – and subsequently had sepsis.
She said: “I feel lucky to be alive.”
The mum-of-two was out running with her Shih Tzu Chloe in September 2019 when she fell face forward onto the trail.
She suffered lacerations to her nose and forehead and visited a plastic surgeon for a skin graft six weeks later.
The professor of education then had major surgery in February 2021 during which she was cut from “ear to ear” to remove the infected areas.
Shelley said: “It was a botched surgery.
“In hindsight, I don’t think they realised it was infected when they put the skin graft over it and by the time I went back and let them know, I wasn’t taken seriously.
“Everything continued to become lacerated. My skin was just falling off the bone because it was so infected. It was terrible.
“It had eaten through my skin down to the bone and it was draining pus and it never closed up.
“A part of my hair was gone and you could see the entire top part of my scalp, it was just blood. Everything was gone.”
The terrifying ordeal has impacted every aspect of Shelley’s life.
She didn’t go out in public for two years and still rarely does out of embarrassment, now “cringing” at her own reflection.
The PhD student, from Florida, US, has even shunned seeing all but her closest friends in person for fear of what they will think of her face.
“I looked like a burns victim,” she said.
“The entire half side of my face looked like it had been burned off and then the upper portion of my scalp looked like road rash, because there was no skin or hair.
“I probably didn’t go out in public for two years and I still don’t go out much.
“I try to time it really early in the morning or late at night.
“I don’t recognise myself when I look in the mirror.
“Before, I might not have had a perfect face but I was totally comfortable with it.
“I didn’t care if I had loose skin or acne, and now I feel like I cringe a lot when I look in the mirror.
“I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh, why can’t I have it look a little bit better?’ It’s upsetting.”
The dog lover claims the experience has also been financially draining as she’s been left unable to work and forced to move states away from her family for specialist treatment that isn’t covered by her insurance in Delaware.
She’s now fundraising $30,000 (£23,600) for surgery to help with her disfigurement and said it would be a “dream come true” to have it done before she marries her fiancé of eight years David Miller, 59, at the end of the year.
“It would be a dream come true to have this surgery before my big day,” Shelley added.
“I still have some days where I feel bad about myself but I feel better today than I did a year ago.
“I can’t expect myself to feel fantastic about myself every single day, but I’m doing the best I can.”
She wants to have her forehead lowered to its original position, volume in her cheeks restored and laser treatment to fix her texture from scarring.
Kennedy NewsShelley after surgery in February 2021[/caption]
The PhD student in July 2020 while the infection was eating at her skinKennedy News
Kennedy NewsShelley said she feels ‘lucky to be alive’[/caption]
Kennedy NewsShelley in March 2021, a few weeks after her surgery[/caption]
Kennedy NewsThe mum with sons Roman, 12, and Jackson, 14, and fiancé David Miller, 59[/caption]
Kennedy NewsThe former estate agent tripped over her dog while out jogging[/caption] Read More