Mother finally has a straight nose following a car crash 20 years ago

‘I look in the mirror now and like what I see’: Mother-of-five whose face was rebuilt from scratch after a drunken car crash 20 years ago finally has the straight nose she always wanted

  • Andrea was thrown 20ft from her car after it flipped over two-to-three times
  • Looked like ‘someone got a hammer and hit the centre of her face’ 
  • Surgeons reconstructed her face but left her with a ‘wide nose without a bridge’
  • Celebrity surgeons Dr Terry Dubrow and Dr Paul Nassif rebuilt her nose  
  • e-mail

9

View
comments

A mother-of-five who had her face rebuilt from scratch following a drunken car crash 20 years ago finally has the straight nose she always wanted.

Andrea, whose surname and age are not known, decided to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. No-one expected her to survive when she was thrown 20ft from the wreck.

The devastating collision left her looking like ‘someone got a hammer and hit the centre of her face’.

Although four reconstructive surgeons managed to rebuild Andrea’s face, she was never happy with her nose, thinking it was ‘too wide, leaned over to the right and didn’t have a bridge’.

But after visiting celebrity surgeons Dr Terry Dubrow and Dr Paul Nassif – stars of the hit E! reality show Botched – Andrea is finally happy with what she sees in the mirror. 


Andrea – whose surname is unknown – had her nose rebuilt after a drunken car crash 20 years ago left her with one that was ‘too wide, leaned over to the right and didn’t have a bridge’


After spending the past two decades being reminded of the crash every time she looked in the mirror, Andrea is thrilled with the results of her surgery and can even breathe easier 

Andrea’s horrific car crash caused the vehicle to flip over two-to-three times. 

By the time an ambulance arrived, Andrea was covered in blood.  

Speaking of the ordeal, she tearfully recalled: ‘I did this to me, the wreck was my fault.’ 

  • The boy who has never eaten a cake: Six-year-old suffers… Small dog ‘saved her owner’s life’ after fetching a phone… Obese man who tipped the scales at 687lbs sheds 334lbs and… Middle-aged migraine sufferers who see flashing lights and…

Share this article

‘You could see straight down my throat. It was like someone got a hammer and hit the centre of my face until my skull was gone. 

‘No one expected me to live.’ 


Andrea tearfully recalled the night of the crash, where she was thrown 20ft from her car after it flipped over two-to-three times. She claims ‘you could see straight down her throat’


Pictured after the crash, surgeons rebuilt her face but she was never happy with her nose

Defying the odds, Andrea pulled through but was never satisfied with how she looked, particularly her nose. 

‘It’s too wide, it’s kind of leaned over to the right and I don’t have a bridge,’ she explained. 

‘I want that nose I lost 20 years ago.’  

Her off-centre nose also meant Andrea struggled to breathe comfortably.  

After warning her it would not be easy, Dr Nassif managed to give Andrea the straight nose she desperately wanted, including a sturdy bridge and clearer airways. 

He even called her ‘extremely lucky’ for surviving the ordeal, adding she could have ‘easily have been in a coma or died’. 

Months on, Andrea is thrilled with the results and is finally ready to put the past behind her. 

‘The daily reminders of my car wreck are less and less,’ she said.

‘I look in the mirror now and I like what I see.’


Pictured after going under the knife again, Andrea smiled through her recovery 


The fun-loving mother-of-five blames herself for her injuries after she drove while intoxicated. Pictured after the crash, she said her face looked like it had been hit with a hammer


Dr Paul Nassif is pictured operating on Andrea and said she was ‘lucky’ not to have died

WHAT IS A NOSE JOB?

A nose job – or a rhinoplasty – is an operation to change the size and shape of the nose.

In the UK, the procedure is not usually available on the NHS for cosmetic reasons, but may be if the surgery is to help you breathe.

Costs range from £4,500-to-£7,000.

Figures suggest around 4,000 nose jobs are carried out every year in the UK and 62,000 in the US. 

All independent and hospital clinics that carry out the procedure in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, which publishes inspection and performance reports.

The surgery may involve making the nose smaller by removing some of the cartilage and bone, or making it larger by taking cartilage from the ears and bone from the hips, elbow or skull. 

The shape of the nose can also be changed by breaking the bone and rearranging the cartilage. And the angle between the nose and the top lip can be reshaped.

An operation that involves one cut across the skin between the nostrils is known as an open rhinoplasty, while tiny cuts inside the nostrils is a closed rhinoplasty.

A closed rhinoplasty leaves no visible scars and causes less swelling.

Both operations taken between 90 minutes and three hours, with patients being required to spend one or two nights in hospital.

Most leave hospital with dressings in each nostril and a splint held over their nose with tape, which means they can only breathe through their mouths.

You may need to take up to three weeks off work to recover and it may be up to six months before the swelling has gone down enough to see the effects of the operation.

Common side effects after a nose reshaping include a:

  • Blocked nose 
  • Stiffness or numbness of the nose
  • Soreness, swelling and bruising around the eyes
  • Light nosebleeds

Occasionally, the surgery can cause permanent breathing difficulties, damage to the cartilage between the nostrils, an altered sense of smell or heavy nosebleeds. 

As with all operations, it can also cause excessive bleeding, blood clots, infection and allergic reaction to the anaesthetic.  

Source: Read Full Article