‘If you were to tell me a year ago today that I would look the way that I do, I wouldn’t believe you’
A model who had her top lip bitten off in a horrific dog attack has shown off her new smile after undergoing six operations over the last two years.
Brooklinn Khoury, 23, was attacked by her cousin’s pit bull in 2020 and recently shared a series of progression pictures to show how far she has come.
In a caption, the pro-skateboarder and influencer wrote: “I don’t expect anyone to understand because how could you. I don’t know how to explain the way that I feel when I look in the mirror.
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“It’s as if I’m a stranger, embodied in someone I’ve known before. She’s somewhat familiar, but carries herself differently.
“I look up at myself and I see someone who has been patched up, to cover a mistake that should never have happened.
“I see someone who’s exhausted from having to explain herself, to a society that’s infatuated by perfection. She is someone who’s trying to love what she sees but she’s scared of what she is seeing.”
When the incident happened, Brooklinn was hanging out with her cousin and her eight-year-old pit bull, Diesel, and was due to star in a TV commercial the following day.
After a day at the beach, they pair went back to Brooklinn’s house where Diesel suddenly spun round and lunged at the athlete’s face, sinking its teeth into her face and ripping off her top lip.
Speaking to Inside Edition about the terrifying incident, Brooklinn said: “He was hanging off of my mouth.”
Following the attack, she took a photo of her face, which she finds it difficult to look at.
“You could see the fear in my eyes, ‘Oh my God, that’s what I look like’,” she recalled.
“How do you fix this? How do you fix this?’ I didn’t realise he had taken off my whole lip.”
Brooklinn’s recovery happened one surgery at a time, and hasn’t been easy physically, or emotionally: “Just having to look at myself in the mirror and having to tell myself and believe that what I am seeing is not the final product and loving myself regardless of how I look just from the inside out.”
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Skateboarder and Model Brooklinn Khoury Reflects on 'How Far I've Come' Since Being Mauled by a Dog pic.twitter.com/cQdixcLbGr
— People (@people) January 7, 2023
But after undergoing half a dozen surgeries – some of which lasted around 20 hours – Brooklinn now has her smile back.
“I think if you were to tell me a year ago today that I would look the way that I do, I wouldn’t believe you,” she said.
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Due to the extent of her injuries, it took Brooklinn over a year to find a doctor who was willing to take it on.
In November 2021, she found Dr. Nicholas Do, who took skin and nerves from her arm, to build a new fully functional upper lip.
“In plastic surgery we can’t exactly recreate what was missing but if we can mimic it enough, it should almost be indistinguishable to the general public,” he said.
Brooklinn’s journey isn’t over yet, though, as she’s set to undergo further surgery later this month.
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