A man with epilepsy was mauled by his dog after the latter got scared while he was in a seizure. He has since had his face reconstructed after he lost his nose from the dog attack.
Man With Epilepsy Underwent 10 Surgeries After Dog Attack
Ben Horne, 34, has struggled with epilepsy growing up, and in one instance, his dog assaulted him while he was having a seizure attack. His pet, Henry, was reportedly upset and attacked him, resulting in him losing his nose. The dog also ripped off sections of his mouth and chin.
Ben could call for an ambulance even in the middle of shock. He was brought right away to Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital for an emergency 10-hour operation to salvage as much of his body as possible.
He has courageously undergone 10 reconstruction surgeries using his rib bones. After five years and numerous procedures, Ben is coming to terms with his new identity. He wants to help others going through similar things by sharing his experience.
According to Ben, when he called 999, he could hardly talk. However, he managed to inform them that he needed an ambulance. At the hospital, the nurse told him that they would hand him a mirror and it would be a "big shock" for him. Ben admitted he didn't think the amount of damage was worse, and he said it was "heartbreaking." However, he decided to embrace himself and love his current self rather than revisit his old self.
Ben lost much of his chin, his top lip was hanging by a thread, and his nose was reduced to just the septum bone. The epidemic caused his initial operation, scheduled for May 2021, to be postponed. The procedure included strengthening his nose's septum, but when he had to wait until October 2021 for the following procedure, this collapsed. The inside of his nose was created using skin from his left forearm.
To attach this to his neck, surgeons also removed an artery from his forearm and bones from his ribs. In September 2022, Ben had another surgery in which a portion of his forehead skin was removed and placed on top of the skin that had been tattooed.
Because the prior donor bone had become contaminated, a team of plastic surgeons from Exeter performed surgery in March 2023, during which they removed additional bone from his hip and cartilage from his ribs to fuse it to his forehead.
They severed the skin on his forehead by May 2023 and have performed numerous surgeries to adjust the anatomy of his nose. The next issue is to figure out how to remove the plastic tubes without causing his nasal passage to close up, as he still needs them to help him breathe.
Ben is gradually adjusting to his new look, but he has had to deal with ongoing attention from the public. He said he gets "embarrassed" when people stare at him for too long.
Another Dog Attack Survivor
Ben isn't the only person who suffers from an altered appearance following a gruesome dog attack. Jacqueline Durand, a resident from Texas, also had the same traumatic experience.
Jacqueline was dog-sitting in December 2021, but when she entered the home, two rescue dogs -- Bender, a boxer and pit bull mix, and Lucy, a German Shepherd -- immediately pinned him down and dragged her through the corridor and into the living room. She was bitten over 800 times by the attack, which left her with torn nose, ears, lips, and cheeks.
Her face was so severely disfigured that she also had to undergo several surgeries to reconstruct her face. According to Jacqueline, she could feel her skin hanging from her face and thought she would die from the attack.
The officers discovered him after leaving the front door open, triggering an alarm. It reportedly took 37 minutes to rescue Jacqueline because the dogs were very aggressive. By March 2023, she had undergone 18 surgeries to rebuild her face.
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