Woman whose lip was ripped off by pit bull shows off results of final reconstruction surgery
Joe Harker
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/brookhoury
A woman who lost her top lip after it was ripped off when she was attacked by a pit bull has posted an update after her final round of reconstruction surgery.
Brooklinn Khoury, 23, is a model and influencer who has featured in Vogue, but in November 2020 she suffered a horrendous injury.
The day before she was set to make a starring appearance in her first TV commercial, Brooklinn had been hanging out with her cousin and their dog, Diesel.
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They were back at Brooklinn's house when she went to pet the pit bull as she had done plenty of times before, but this time Diesel and tore off her top lip with his teeth along with the tip of her nose.
It took her more than a year to find a surgeon willing to perform the reconstruction process and since then has been through a series of lengthy operations, with some lasting as long as 20 hours.
Five skin graft procedures and a lot of time in hospital were able to restore the model's face and now she's been through what she hopes will be the final round of surgery to recreate the shape of the top lip.
Posting pictures of the post-operation look to Instagram, Brooklinn showed that her lip had been in for surgery again and explained exactly what had been done this time.
She wrote: The surgery yesterday went really well! My surgeon was able to accomplish what he planned to do.
"He recreated the central columns, the lip and the cupids bow. I'm very swollen right now, but once the swelling goes down it will look amazing. Thank God."
Before the operation she told People the healing process from this surgery can take up to six weeks and she won't have any feeling in her upper lip for a while.
The model said she was 'almost at the finish' line when it came to the series of surgeries and was 'excited to hopefully be done' so she could 'start with life again.
She said: "My personal hope, just like any surgery that I do, is just learning to love what I see.
"Before, I just focused on such little things that didn't even matter. Like for instance, I had a zit on my upper lip right when the attack happened, and I remember being so insecure about it. And then 15 minutes later, my entire lip was gone.
"So I think it just shifted my perspective and I've just been learning to live in the present and learn that beauty does not have a definition."
Once she's fully clear of her lip surgeries, Brooklinn wants to get back to her active life of skateboarding, hiking, skiing and plenty more.