Model, 22, who had her top lip RIPPED OFF by a pit bull undergoes ‘very complex’ $400K surgery in the hopes of restoring her smile – but still faces FIVE more procedures to repair her horrific wounds
- Brooklinn Khoury’s face was dramatically altered on November 3, 2020, when she was attacked by a relative’s dog while visiting family in Arizona
- The 22-year-old skateboarder said the animal ‘was shaking her head like a toy,’ and took off her entire upper lip and parts of her nose
- Now, she has had life-changing surgery – which she admitted she had ‘very mixed feelings’ about before hand, due to the long healing process
- She revealed in a YouTube video posted before the surgery that in the weeks afterwards, she was going to have to use a feeding tube through her nose
- The girlfriend of former Dance Moms star Chloe Lukasiak shared an image of her partner in the hospital but has yet to share a photo of herself post-surgery
- Brooklinn explained that the ‘very complex surgery,’ which is called a skin graft, will not make her lip look completely normal, but that it’s ‘just the foundation’
- According to the young star, they took some skin and an artery from her arm and put it on her mouth to act as a new lip
A model who had her top lip ripped off by a pit bull in a horrific attack has undergone ground-breaking, $400,000 surgery to try to restore her smile.
Before the incident, Brooklinn Khoury, 22, from Mission Viejo, California, was working hard on her rising modelling career. The skateboarder-turned-influencer was even gearing up to film her first ever television commercial, when suddenly, everything changed.
Brooklyn’s face was dramatically altered on November 3, 2020, when she was attacked by a relative’s dog while visiting family in Arizona. She said the animal ‘was shaking her head like a toy,’ and ultimately ripped off her entire upper lip and parts of her nose.
Now, the 22-year-old has undergone life-changing surgery – which she admitted she had ‘very mixed feelings’ about before hand, due to the long and strenuous healing process.
A model who had her top lip ripped off by a bit bull in a horrific attack has undergone ground-breaking, $400,000 surgery to try to restore her smile. She is pictured before the surgery
Brooklinn Khoury’s face was dramatically altered on November 3, 2020, when she was attacked by a relative’s dog while visiting family in Arizona
The 22-year-old skateboarder said the animal ‘was shaking her head like a toy,’ and ripped off her entire upper lip and parts of her nose. She is pictured with her doctor before the surgery
Now, Brooklinn (pictured with her doctor) has had life-changing surgery – which she admitted she had ‘very mixed feelings’ about before hand, due to the long healing process
She revealed in a YouTube video posted just days before going under the knife that after the surgery, she will have to have a feeding tube put up her nose since she wasn’t going to be able to move her mouth at all.
The surgery that could save Brooklinn’s smile: What is a skin graft?
- A skin graft is when a patch of skin that is removed by surgery from one area of the body is transplanted, or attached, to another area
- It is often used on burns, areas where there has been infection that caused a large amount of skin loss, skin cancer, or very large wounds
- According to Mount Sinai, you shouldn’t do physical activity for three to four weeks after the surgery
‘I’m excited to get surgery to begin to heal again and work with this doctor but I’m also really sad to have to stop my life again and kind of heal, and to go through the healing process,’ she said in the video.
‘I feel like I’m such an active person, so for me to be out for a little bit, it hurts my head mentally.
‘Coming out of the surgery, I am not going to be able to move my mouth at all, so I have to have a feeding tube up my nose.
‘I have to be on a liquid diet. I have to be in the hospital for five days after the surgery. It’s gonna be a lot, so I’m gonna need all the prayers I can get.’
Brooklinn explained that the ‘very complex surgery’ will not make her lip look completely normal. She added, ‘It’s not going to look like a perfect lip, it’s just the foundation.’
According to the young star, they were going to take some skin and an artery from her arm and put it on her mouth to act as a new lip.
She also revealed that it took more than a year for her to find a doctor who was willing to work on her face, but that it was totally worth the wait.
‘They have to take a main artery and take the skin, fold it and put it put it on my mouth. The artery needs to supply blood so they’re going to cut a little of my neck and take the artery underneath my skin and connect it to my lip so that I have blood flow for the new skin,’ she explained.
‘It’s called a skin graft, it’s very complex but my doctor is the best. I finally found a doctor and I’m working with him. He has the best heart and he’s so open minded, he just thinks beyond the box.
‘It’s amazing. He’s creative, he’s artsy, that’s something that I really wanted in a doctor so I’m so happy I found it. It took a year, but it was well worth the wait.’
The surgery took place on November 17, but Brooklinn has yet to post an update on how it went or how she is feeling.
She did, however, share a photo that showed her girlfriend – former Dance Moms star Chloe Lukasiak – laying in bed next to her at the hospital on November 22.
‘My whole entire life,’ she captioned it.
One day later, she posted a clip from inside a store, so it appears that she is now out of the hospital.
The procedure reportedly cost $400,000 and will require at least five follow-up surgeries.
They took some skin and an artery from her arm and put it on her mouth to act as a new lip. The procedure reportedly cost $400,000 and will require at least five follow-up surgeries
The surgery took place on November 17, but Brooklinn has yet to post an update on how it went or how she’s feeling
She did, however, share a photo that showed her girlfriend – former Dance Moms star Chloe Lukasiak – laying in bed next to her at the hospital on November 22
One day later, she posted a clip from inside a store, so it appears that she is now out of the hospital
In an Instagram post after the attack, the model admitted that she was ‘scared’ for her future and that she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to smile again.
‘It’s crazy how your life can change so dramatically in the split of a second,’ she wrote.
‘I’m trying to stay as positive as I can about this whole situation, but I will be honest I am scared about my future, or if I’ll ever be able to smile again or eat normally.
‘This is the beginning of a long journey to recovery. I hate asking for anything but It would mean the world if you would pray for me. Please remember to hug someone you love today.’
But instead of being knocked down, the social media star came back even stronger. She continued to post pictures online, and her Instagram follower count actually tripled.
Now, she has more than 58,000, and it turns out, going through the traumatic event made her even more relatable to her followers.
She began earning about $1,000 per sponsored post and landed a bunch of major brand deals with companies like DC Shoes, for example.
Brooklinn even started her own YouTube channel, where she documented her road to recovery – with her first video gaining almost 250,000 views.
In an Instagram post after the attack, the model admitted that she was ‘scared’ for her future and that she wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to smile again
‘It’s crazy how your life can change so dramatically in the split of a second,’ she wrote after the attack. ‘I’m trying to stay as positive as I can.’ She is pictured right after the incident
‘I just decided there’s no reason to hide how I am,’ she told BuzzFeed earlier this year, of her decision to continue pursuing her career on social media.
Despite her success, the 22-year-old does still have a love/hate relationship with the internet, and sometimes when things start to get ‘toxic’ she needs to step away.
‘Beauty is so prescribed in so many ways. I don’t want to go on social media and feel like I’m not a whole person, looks-wise,’ she continued.
In an Instagram post last year, Brooklinn got real about learning to love herself, including her injuries.
‘I don’t really feel any different because when I’m out skating, or hanging around with friends I don’t feel any pain. It’s when I go home and have to face myself in the mirror that I realize I look a little different than how I use to,’ she wrote at the time.
‘I am not able to change the way I look at the moment, so I have learned to love everything that I see in the mirror.
Instead of being knocked down, the skateboarder came back even stronger. After the incident, she continued to post pictures online, and her Instagram follower count actually tripled
‘We are all beautiful in our own ways no matter the situation. We need to learn to love ourselves whole heartedly,’ she previously said
In October, Brooklinn revealed that she was dating Chloe when she shared a pic of them holding hands to Instagram
‘Someone very close to my heart told me something that has really stuck with me the past couple days. She said, “Beauty cannot be defined.”
‘We are all beautiful in our own ways no matter the situation. We need to learn to love ourselves whole heartedly. Learn to love and appreciate the little things, and most importantly learn to see the “beauty” in everything.’
In October, Brooklinn revealed that she was dating former Chloe when she shared a pic of them holding hands to Instagram, which she captioned, ‘My favorite human.’
The dancer re-shared the photos to her own account, captioning her post with a simple heart. She also commented, ‘My angel,’ on Brooklinn’s.
She previously told Buzzfeed that she wasn’t getting the surgery to change her appearance, however, but instead to protect her exposed gums. She said that she’s happy to ‘rock her no-lip forever’ and knows she is never ‘going to look the same.’
DO PIT BULLS HAVE A TENDENCY TO TURN ON THEIR OWNERS?
- Colorado Injury Law reports that across the United States, there are more than 4.5 million dog bites that occur each year
- From 2010 to June 2021, there were 430 fatal dog bites, with 185 of those coming from pit bulls, and another 41 that were pit bull mixes
- Pit bulls make up only 6% of the dog population, but they’re responsible for 68% of dog attacks, according to Animals 24-7
- Colleen Lynn, president and founder of DogsBite.org, said that pit bulls are dangerous because violence is in their DNA: ‘Pit bulls were specifically bred with incredible aggression and fight’
- Outward Hound, on the other hand, reported that a peer-reviewed study analyzing 10-years of dog bite-related fatalities concluded that breed was not a factor associated with bite incidents and that ‘pit bull-type dogs have continued to be unfairly targeted’
- Thomas Edison, Theodore Roosevelt, and Helen Keller are amongst the famous faces in history who owned pit bulls
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